Giampaolo cuts a frustrated figure: “This loss puts out of the race for Europe”

Sampdoria’s loss this afternoon against Lazio ended their dreams of competing in Europe next season, a fact Marco Giampaolo looked straight in the face.

“The first half wasn’t our best,” the coach put it bluntly. “There was no substance to our play and we got our approach wrong both technically and mentally. This defeat knocks us out of the running for Europe, even if when we went down to ten men we could’ve equalised. In the second half, the team reacted with pride and tried to salvage our honour, but we must be angry with ourselves for the first half.”

Although a massive disappointment, there were some good things Giampaolo saw in the second half.

“Gian Marco Ferrari didn’t put a foot wrong during the week and played the most important game of the season. I liked Tonelli’s performance too, coming on mid-game without a chance to warm up.

“It’s good that my team didn’t give up and kept trying to put it right until the end. When we understand that the right attitude can influence certain games, we’ll make the step up in quality. Otherwise, we’ll stay in normality and that’s not OK.”