The Nigeria international’s effort was not enough to inspire the visitors’ comeback at the Stadio Comunale Luigi Ferraris
Simy Nwankwo scored his fourth Serie A goal of the season as Crotone suffered a 3-1 defeat against Sampdoria in Saturday’s encounter.
Simy pulled a goal back for the Pythagoreans on the stroke of half-time after efforts from Mikkel Damsgaard and Jakub Jankto gave Sampdoria a 2-0 lead in the first 35 minutes.
After the restart, Fabio Quagliarella came off the bench to seal victory for the hosts with his 65th-minute goal, which condemned Crotone to their ninth league loss of the season.
Simy was in action for the entire duration but despite the Nigerian’s contribution in front of goal, his team have only won a match in the Italian top-flight so far this term.
The 28-year-old has played in each of Crotone’s matches in this campaign, and he is three goals from equalling his best goalscoring return in the Serie A (seven goals in the 2017-18 season).
Ivory Coast’s Koffi Djidji was also on parade for the visitors as he was introduced in the 78th minute, while the Gambia centre-back Omar Colley saw 90 minutes of action for Sampdoria and Senegal’s Keita Balde was an unused substitute.
Saturday’s defeat left Crotone languishing at the bottom of the Serie A table with six points after playing 13 matches.
Next up for Simy and his teammates, is a home league match against Gervinho’s Parma on Tuesday and they will be targeting a positive result to end the year on a high. (GOAL)
