Honours even for mid-table pair

Mid-table pair Bologna and Sampdoria played out a 1-1 draw at the Renato Dall'Araon Sunday.

Two of Serie A's midtable clubs, Bologna and Sampdoria, played out a 1-1 draw at the Renato Dall'Ara after Gianluca Sansone cancelled out Alberto Gilardino's first half strike. With the two sides sitting 12th and 14th, neither came into the match with much to play for, safe from the threat of relegation with little chance of challenging for a European place. The home side were without suspended defender Gyorgy Garics, while Diego Perez missed out through injury - although Panagiotis Kone was passed fit. The visitors were without suspended defenders Andrea Costa and Lorenzo De Silvestri while striker Eder and Nenad Krsticic both missed out through injury. The visitors started strongly and just three minutes in Pedro Obiang's shot from the edge of the area had to be pushed to safety by home stopper Gianluca Curci That kickstarted the home side and after 11 minutes a Marco Motta cross found Alberto Filardino, whose acrobatic volley skimmed the right post with Sergio Romero well beaten. Just 60 seconds later and Filardino went close again with a curling free-kick which was well kept out by the Argentinian. Sampdoria broke and Curci pulled off a wonderful save off Sansone from close range. After a manic start, the game gradually settled down, that is until the 24th minute when Bologna took the lead. Saphir Sliti Taider did well down the right before delivering an inch-perfect cross for an unmarked Gilardino who headed home from close range. They almost doubled their lead two minutes before the break when Kone burst into the box but his close range effort was kept out by Romero. Alessandro Diamanti fired just wide of the post two minutes into the second half, before Curci made another impressive stop to keep out Andrea Poli's drilled shot. There was however little he could do after 59 minutes as a terrific Maxi Lopez cross found Sansone, whose left footed effort flew into the top right hand corner of the net. Kone shot over from the edge of the area before a Diamanti free-kick hit the post late on, but Sampdoria held on for a point.