Stodgy Udine: Di Natale and Muriel cancel out Eder

We
will suffer. Let’s say it now, to avoid illusions or hypocrisies.
Sampdoria is defeated at the “Friuli” stadium in Udine and losing
the Sunday lunch match it remains involved in the salvation fight.
The final 3-1 is a stodgy result for Delio Rossi’s guys, who, despite
the absences, stood a chance up to the end, being competitive against
a team – the surprising Udinese of mister Francesco Guidolin – well trained
and aspiring to qualify for the Europa League; a team that winning
today gets its fifth consecutive victory. Nevertheless, positive
signals don’t give points; points that will be essential as bread,
together with more attention and, hopefully, an extra little bit of
luck, on Wednesday evening, when we will play against Catania.

The
match. Both obliged and for choice, our mister lines up a very
reshaped Samp: in the starting line there are, after a lot of time, Paolo
Castellini and Renan Garcia, who don’t look bad, just like the others.
Shortly before the half hour and taking advantage of the first good
occasion, Di Natale scores his first goal giving Udinese the lead.
Eder Citadin Martins levels some minutes later and the first half of the match ends
with a 1-1 draw. After the resume, the blucerchiati
are determined but Di Natale is always able to take his chance and
restores the bianconeri’s
lead with a lob that mocks Sergio Romero. Gianluca Sansone (who replaced Mauro Icardi) hits
the post, Eder gets close to double on Brkic’s error. We would have
deserved to draw but in the end Romero really screws it up,
involuntarily passing straight to Muriel, who scores the final 3-1.

Analysis.
«We played it well and we have been defeated, but I got positive
signals – comments Rossi after the match -. We made big defensive
mistakes and individual errors strongly weighed on the result. I
think that now keeping our heads is fundamental, because in moment
like this mental condition is even more important than the physical
one. I saw a reaction and it means that my team is still alive,
determined: we took risks but, even so, we bravely tried to put the
match on the right track, and that’s positive».