Cristiano Ronaldo, Krzysztof Piatek lose Serie A top scorer tag to Sampdoria striker

What's the story?

Sampdoria veteran striker Fabio Quagliarella is giving Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo and AC Milan forward Krzysztof Piatek a run for their money as the Italian has surpassed the duo to the top of the Serie A goal-scoring charts.

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Sampdoria may have suffered a 2-1 defeat to Atalanta at home on Sunday night but Quagliarella managed to get himself on the scoresheet with a second-half penalty to take his goal tally to 20 so far this season.

Two Atalanta goals courtesy of Duvan Zapata and Robin Gosens cancelled out Quagliarella's successful spot-kick to give the visitors three points.

The defeat means Atalanta move to seventh place on the Serie A table while Sampdoria trail five points behind at ninth place.

At 36, Quagliarella, who is a Torino youth product, is in phenomenal shape for Sampdoria. Last season, the Italian scored 19 goals for the club and he looks set to set a new and much higher personal record this season.

The heart of the matter

Quagliarella's penalty against Atalanta on Sunday marked his 20th goal this season, which is a personal record, thereby surpassing Ronaldo and Piatek to become the top scorer in the Serie A.

The race for the Serie A Golden Boot has now further intensified as Ronaldo and Piatek follow close behind in the goal-scoring chart with 19 goals each. The top five is completed by Duván Zapata and Arkadiusz Milik with 17 and 14 goals each.

What's next?

While Quagliarella's Sampdoria sit at ninth place in the Serie A table, Ronaldo's Juventus and Piatek's AC Milan sit further up at first and third place respectively.

Sampdoria is next scheduled to lock horns with Sassuolo in the league on Saturday night.

(Note: The statistics in this article are based on the BBC's Serie A goal-scoring chart)