MILAN: Claudio Ranieri brought the curtain down on his coaching career with Sampdoria on Saturday with a 3-0 win over Parma.

Italian forward Fabio Quagliarella marked his 500th Serie A appearance with the opening goal against relegated Parma who will finish the season bottom of the table.

Ranieri, 69, announced on Friday that this will be his final match with Sampdoria after failing to get his contract extended despite leading the club to a top-half finish.

I wanted the team to fight until the last game,” said Ranieri, who led outsiders Leicester City to the 2016 English Premier League title, and took over the Genoa side in October 2019.

The lads were happy tonight. I was sorry not to have been able to greet the fans tonight. And now? We’ll see, I still really want to work.”

Ranieri’s vast coaching experience spanning 35 years includes spells at Chelsea, Valencia, Monaco, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, Juventus, Roma and Napoli.

In Genoa, Quagliarella broke through after 20 minutes finishing off an Antonio Candreva cross, with Omar Colley sending in a rebound before the break.

Candreva again set up Manolo Gabbiadini to curl in the third after an hour to seal the three points and move his team up to ninth.

Quagliarella has scored 177 top flight goals and 99 for Sampdoria, including 13 this season.

The Italian international has played over 200 times for Sampdoria, and was the Serie A top scorer in the 2018-2019 season with 26 goals.

Quagliarella made his top flight debut in Torino in 2000. He has also played for Udinese, Napoli and Juventus, winning three Serie A trophies with the Turin club.

Parma finished three points below 19th-placed Crotone, who hit the crossbar in a goalless draw at home to Fiorentina. Genoa held on to win 1-0 at Cagliari despite playing the final seven minutes with 10 men after midfielder Valon Behrami was sent off following a second bookable offence.

Eldor Shomurodov scored the only goal of the game in the 15th minute.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2021