APPIANO GENTILE – "This game against Sampdoria is our fifth in two very intense weeks. That's what worries me the most because with the problems we've had we've been using basically the same group of players." That was how Andrea Stramaccioni opened his pre-match press conference the day before the Nerazzurri's match at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.
The coach added: "We've got ourselves a few more hours now that the game's been put back to the evening but we had 120 long intense minutes on Thursday. We've spent these two days trying to recover and get our energy back so that we're in good shape for tomorrow night. We'll give it everything we've got."After the Tottenham game, Massimo Moratti lavished praise on the team and the club and offered his backing to the coach. Stramaccioni explained: "His faith is crucial to me, perhaps even more so than his backing. The players sent out the biggest signal. Our work is what the players produce on the pitch. I've congratulated them several times because we took a step forward in many areas. Now we have Samp to think about and there's no doubt we're in for a hard time because it comes on the back of our Europa League match. Unfortunately players who weren't on our UEFA list like Stankovic and Schelotto won't be available tomorrow, while Kuzmanovic isn't 100% because of a problem he picked up during the week. So it looks like we'll have the same group yet again. We're up for it though, we're definitely up for it. Tomorrow is an important game and we need to keep the results coming. It's going to be tough but we'll give it our best shot."
