Zenga preparing to face friend and foe Mandorlini: “Marassi crowd will help us to win”

Walter Zenga insists that friendship won’t stand in his way when he comes face to face with former team-mate Andrea Mandorlini tomorrow.

The pair have been close friends since their playing days – and Sampdoria fans have been twinned with Hellas Verona fans perhaps for even longer – but the niceties will be kept to the bare minimum when the two sides meet at the Marassi. The Gialloblu are desperate for points and the Blucerchiati can’t face the prospect of another weekend without a win, so you can be sure they’ll both be going all out to beat each other.

“I’m very fond of Mandorlini and it will be nice to play against his team tomorrow,” the Doria manager told reporters at the Mugnaini training ground today.

“Hellas haven’t lost many games and they’ve often lost leads undeservedly. This certainly won’t be the easy game some people are making it out to be. We’re playing at home and we want to win. Our fans always help us to perform at our very best.”

We’ll have more from the boss in a subtitled video of his media conference shortly.