It was the Antonio Cassano Show at Marassi as Sampdoria battered Bologna 4-1 on Coach Franco Colomba's debut.

The Rossoblu made their debut under new Coach Franco Colomba after Giuseppe Papadopulo was axed this week. Tension was also high at Samp, who felt cheated out of the leadership after three denied penalties in the last two games. One of them left Giampaolo Pazzini with a fractured nose and he played with a specially personalised face-mask. Marco Padalino was suspended.

The mask didn't seem to impede Pazzini too much, as he scored eight minutes in. Antonio Cassano did most of the work, skipping past Lanna down the right flank and crossing low from the byline for Pazzini to flick in from six yards.

The Rossoblu fought back with a Marco Di Vaio header that skimmed a coat of paint off the base of the far post.

However, Sampdoria doubled their lead with an absolute corker! Pazzini turned assist-man by knocking on a cross from the left for the unmarked Daniele Mannini's spectacular volley. It was from a tight angle, but the right-foot strike slipped between goalkeeper and near post.

Bologna visibly lost confidence and the Blucerchiati were passing it around beautifully. Reto Ziegler made it 3-0 when he spun round Gaby Mudingayi outside the D and smacked a fierce angled drive into the near bottom corner.

It got worse, as Di Vaio was sent off for insulting the referee - a second bookable offence after his earlier handball - leaving the Rossoblu to play with 10 men for an hour.

Marcelo Zalayeta nonetheless went close with his shot charged down by defenders from eight yards. It was a brief respite as Cassano created another stunning goal.

FantAntonio went to the byline down the left and took on two Bologna defenders, dizzying them with footwork before crossing on to Mannini's head at the back post.

It was almost 5-0 when Viviano palmed away a Pazzini header, then fingertipped Cassano's wonderful solo effort over the bar. Cassano had gathered in midfield with his back to goal, gone past two defenders, dummied a third and aimed a precise drive towards the near top corner from the edge of the box.

There is a history between these clubs from when Bologna's soft penalty doomed the Genovese side to relegation. Understandably, most of the Rossoblu fans left at half-time.

Samp took their foot off the accelerator and paid the price, as Bologna caught them napping on a free kick. A free kick was flicked over the top for Daniele Portanova's header off the bar, then Zauri's weak backpass was intercepted by Pablo Daniel Osvado's first kick of the game.

Cassano blasted over at the end of a good run and was furious with himself, as he has not scored since August 30.

Accardi came off the bench and had a shot charged down from close range, while Pazzini came sliding in and just failed to get the final touch to Cassano's chipped cross.