Nine attempts. Eight successes. For a defender, that is not a normal afternoon.
Abdoul Guiebre spent Ascoli's 2-0 win over Sampdoria going past opponents almost at will, completing 8 of his 9 dribbles and drawing two fouls along the way. He finished the match with a rating of 7.7, the kind of number that tends to belong to a winger having the game of his life rather than a man whose job starts in his own half.
A defender doing a dribbler's job
Sampdoria's backline had no answer. Every time Guiebre carried the ball forward, he seemed to find a yard that should not have existed, and when he could not find the yard he found a foul instead, two of them by the final whistle. That is the profile of a player opponents simply could not contain in one-on-one situations.
None of it was wasted running either. Ascoli left with the win, 2-0, and a defender as the headline act on the ball.
The numbers behind the performance
- Successful dribbles: 8 (from 9 attempted)
- Fouled: 2 times
- Match rating: 7.7
Sampdoria will have left Ascoli wondering how a player in defence caused them so much trouble in the final third of the pitch. For Ascoli, it was the kind of individual display that turns a routine home fixture into a statement, and for Guiebre, a personal performance that stood above the 2-0 scoreline itself.