The Samp hitman earned himself a spot in the record books against Ireland, albeit for all of the wrong reasons.

Sampdoria’s goal scoring machine Giampaolo Pazzini has made headlines for the large majority of the year, since making the move from Fiorentina in the January transfer period.

His scoring record has spoken for itself recently, and he proved this yet again at the weekend, when he grabbed a goal on debut for Italy against Montenegro.

As a result of his fine form in that game, he did enough to earn a start in only his second ever match in Azzurri colours, against the Republic of Ireland.

Incredibly, after just three and a half minutes of play though, Pazzini was shown a red card for what the referee believed to be an intentional elbow to the face, on the Irish defender John O’Shea.

The sending off was the fastest ever in Italian history, meaning that the 24-year-old has etched his name in the record books by eclipsing the old mark of seven minutes previously held by Giorgio Ferrini, who was shown his marching orders in Italy’s 2-0 defeat against Chile in the 1962 World Cup.