The Serie A season has not even started yet and Sampdoria is already mired in controversy following its 4-0 defeat to Vojvodina in Europa League first leg qualifier.
From a surprise participation in UEFA Europa League to calls for the sacking of coach Walter Zenga. Sampdoria is on a downward trend and following the departure of Sinisa Mihajlovic to Milan, things are not looking good for the blucerchiati.
Although Sampdoria finished seventh in Serie A last season, they were rewarded Italy’s last Europa League spot as Genoa was denied a UEFA licence due to administrative issues and not respecting deadlines.
Normally this would be cause for celebration; however problems ensued even prior to the start of training camp. The Stadio Luigi Ferraris where Sampdoria play required redevelopment work to meet UEFA standards. This forced the club to play their first leg at Stadio Olimpico in Torino. Although they were in Italy, it was not really a home game and Sampdoria took it in the chin with a 4-0 loss.
Sampdoria fans were furious and called for Zenga’s head. The vitriol sent towards Zenga on social media was too much for the coach, who promptly closed his twitter account. President Massimo Ferrero intervened on twitter, defending his coach:
“If you love Samp as I do take your hands off of ZENGA ! If the match result was different what would we be talking about? There will be trouble for those who hurt my lads!!”
Se amate la Samp come la amo Io giù le mani da ZENGA! Se quella partita usciva diversa di cosa parlavamo ora? Guai chi tocca i mie ragazzi!!
— Massimo Ferrero (@unavitadacinema) August 3, 2015
The odds are clearly against Sampdoria to overcome that disastrous result, but that didn’t discourage their goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano. Speaking to Samp TV he remained hopeful that Sampdoria can perform a miracle.
“Frankly we’re all ashamed of our performance in the first leg; we worked so much last year just as we did in the last month. We owe it to ourselves, to the club and to our fans, to go there and try to win, perform a miracle. We already succeeded losing 4-0 at home; maybe there can be another (miracle). Obviously in football you never know, for better or for worse, when the games are over we always talk about yesterday. We can’t do anything; we have taken a big blow. We spoke, we saw the video, trying to understand the reasons for the defeat and we did not succeed. We want to return to the pitch strong, trying to recover what we have lost.”
The post Sampdoria, Viviano “We will try to perform a miracle” appeared first on Italian Football Daily.
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