Candreva: “Great reaction and win, congratulations to Torregrossa”

Antonio Candreva showed nerves of steel in dispatching a daring Panenka-style penalty to score the first goal in Samp’s comeback win over Udinese on Saturday night.

After the game, though, the experienced Italian was keen to deflect attention away from his stunning spot-kick.

“The only thing that counts is that it went in,” he said. “We showed a great reaction. We struggled with Udinese a bit, but we’ve got a really important win. They should have more points than they do, so we know we’ve performed very well.”

Candreva was also full of praise for new team-mate Ernesto Torregrossa, who came off the bench to score a fine header and wrap up the three points.

“I want to congratulate Torregrossa, who has got off to a great start,” he said. “I rated him when he was at Brescia and I hope he can keep this up. We all need to keep progressing. We need to help the younger players to develop and have a season worthy of Samp, showing enthusiasm and enjoying ourselves. Now we need to focus on the Parma match and then take it game by game, because we’ve had a few slip-ups that have cost us dear.”