Inspired substitution lifts Sampdoria

Andanov free-kick
Sampdoria, European Champions Clubs' Cup finalists in 1992, started the match at a high tempo but struggled to carve out any meaningful goalscoring opportunities despite adopting an attacking approach. Cherno More, after resisting the onslaught of the opening 20 minutes, began to create chances of their own and came close to levelling the tie on aggregate when Georgi Andanov hit the outside of the near post with a free-kick from the right midway through the first half. At the other end, Claudio Bellucci contrived to head Sergio Volpi's cross on 23 minutes over the crossbar rather than towards goal.

Maggio move
The Bulgarian visitors continued to threaten in the early stages of the second half and Sampdoria goalkeeper Luca Castellazzi was forced to make an extraordinary save to turn away Kiril Djorov's powerful shot from just outside the penalty area. Blucerchiati coach Walter Mazzarri then replaced attacking midfielder Vladimir Koman with full-back Maggio in an attempt to stifle Cherno More's attacking impetus and the move proved more decisive than perhaps even he could have envisaged as it was the substitute who cropped up to latch on to a pass from Bellucci and score the winner for the home side two minutes into added time.