Del Neri Analyses First Samp Loss

Sampdoria got a sharp dose of reality on Wednesday night at the Stadio Franchi in Florence, going down 2-0 to an aggressive Fiorentina side obviously spurned by their coaches description of them as ‘the worst Fiorentina I’ve seen’ after their loss in Roma on the weekend.

Sampdoria began strongly and Viola goalkeeper Frey was called upon to make three excellent saves in the first half to deny Cassano, then Pazzini and then Mannini who all got their shots on goal with some power.

However, at the other end Fiorentina were consistent in attack and capitalised on poor marking from the Sampdoria defense to score a relatively soft goal from the head of Jovetic. Fiorentina went further ahead in the second half with another header from Gilardino, and despite changing to his most attacking formation with Pozzi joining Pazzini and Cassano upfront, Del Neri’s men were unable to make an impact and brought to an end their history-making four match opening run.

Del Neri had this to say after the game:

“I’m not upset after the loss. We were not ‘out of place’ before and were still not after this defeat. We let in a goal, the first, from a fairly ‘banal’ piece of play. But these are mistakes that get made. The errror was that Stankevicius was too far away from the open goal. But we know that it’s possible to make mistakes, we know how to study them so to not make them again. Also we’re conscious of what we can do, what we are doing and what we will do.

“For the second goal Vargas shouldn’t have been allowed to cross the ball in. But as I said, these are mistakes that happen, it’s enough to be aware of them and how they happen.”

Del Neri finished by saying he is “serenely awaiting Inter on the weekend” showing no signs of panic. And there need not be. 12 points, 4 wins and 1 loss, attractive play, and beaten in a game that Samp played quite well in away to a higher rated team, the first balance-sheet of this years Sampdoria is still overwhelmingly positive.

Doc