TIM Cup: Samp eliminated by Torosidis. Let’s now focus on Udinese

We
usually say: "un po' per uno non fa male a nessuno". In this case, the
famous Italian quote about an equal division of the stakes clashes with
the TIM Cup round of 16 match because Samp gets hurt. In a well-crowded
“Olimpico”, Rudi Garcia’s Roma opens the scoring and wastes occasions – due
also to a super Vincenzo Fiorillo -; Sinisa Mihajlovic guys don’t give up and react –
especially in the second half – but without creating too much problems
to the giallorossi who move on to quarter-finals with the minimum effort
and will play against Juventus.

Uphill battle. As largely preannounced, our mister decides to carry out a big turnover: Rodriguez, Salamon, Fornasier and Castellini lined-up in a 4-men defence; Obiang and Maresca in the centre; the trio Bjarnason, Sansone and Wszolek to support the only striker, Pozzi. Roma takes advantage of the first possibility to take the lead. Dodô crosses for Destro, Fiorillo saves but the Greek Torosidis stucks the ball in and scores an open goal. Just 6 minutes and the match becomes an uphill battle.

Performance. Samp’s reaction is almost immediate but the blucerchiati are not enough aggressive in the offensive phase and can’t hit, as Mihajlovic says after the match: «I’m satisfied with the team performance. I would have liked to see more conviction and determination in the last 30 meters in order to create more problems to the giallorossi. Anyway, we both created and suffered but I think the general performance was positive. About the substitutes I think they deserved a possibility and I also had to think about next match against Udinese. The match we’ll play on Monday in Marassi, in fact, is fundamental for the achievement of our aim».