After collecting a point from their opening 18 matches, have Benevento turned their luck around courtesy of the resurgence of a journeyman striker?
Sampdoria were seeing witches on Saturday. So was everyone else in Italy, to be fair. This was the weekend when La Befana made her annual visit, dropping off gifts for good children and lumps of coal for the naughty. Whether this kindly old lady, riding a broomstick that she uses to sweep each house before she leaves, should technically be considered a witch is the subject of scholarly debate but she is widely depicted as one.
It is not La Befana, though, who appears on Benevento’s crest. Their witch is a manifestation of the city’s pagan traditions, dating back to the 17th century. As Samp would discover at the Stadio Ciro Vigorito, this place has a little magic left yet.
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Chievo 1-1 Udinese, Fiorentina 1-1 Inter, Torino 3-0 Bologna, Milan 1-0 Crotone, Benevento 3-2 Sampdoria, Genoa 1-0 Sassuolo, Napoli 2-0 Verona, Spal 2-5 Lazio, Roma 1-2 Atalanta, Cagliari 0-1 Juventus.
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