Di Francesco: “It was a good test against Spezia, we played some fine football”

“It was a good test and it was crucial to adopt a serious approach,” was Eusebio Di Francesco’s take on Sampdoria’s performance against Spezia. The Blucerchiati ran out 5-3 winners and the coach found plenty of positives to take from the friendly. “We had so many players out, but I tried to rotate and give minutes to those who didn’t get much playing time against Monaco. The players responded well, but we must be better defensively, as we gave too much away today. There were holes in our defence, but we managed to put some good attacking moves together and scored plenty of goals.”

There was good reason to be pleased in terms of spreading the load going forward, with five different Samp players getting on the scoresheet. “It’s key and sharing the goals has to be one of our targets. I saw some fantastic attacking moves out there and am pleased with how the players performed in general.” Looking ahead to the club’s third game in the space of a week against Parma on Saturday, Di Francesco said, “All these matches close together are needed to get us into better shape by getting minutes under our belts to ensure we’re ready for the Coppa Italia.”