Ranieri: “The team is focused on Verona, with key points to play for”

The Sampdoria squad is purely thinking about the key upcoming clash with Hellas Verona on Monday evening, as Claudio Ranieri explained during his pre-match press conference. “The team is focused. There’s talk of what’s happening at present, but once we’re on the pitch, all other thoughts are left behind. The players have given everything so far, but we’re now heading into the key part of the season and each point is worth double.”

In terms of the visitors to the Stadio Ferraris on Monday, the coach was full of praise for their exploits so far this season. “Verona are the surprise package this year. I call them ‘Atalanta’s sister’ because they have very similar attributes. We’ll have to play well and strike the right balance. We’ll need the perfect performance and it’ll be essential to have the fans behind us.”

The coach also discussed today’s decision to postpone another five Serie A matches after the initial postponements last weekend, including Sampdoria’s visit to Inter Milan. “The league campaign is being conditioned by these decisions about if games should be played as normal, behind closed doors or be postponed, but we just have to make the best of a difficult situation. I believe that a stadium without any fans is the end of football and such games take place in a surreal atmosphere.” The north of Italy is in a state of emergency and on the highest alert, which the boss discussed. “There is talk about it in the dressing room, but we then focus on training. Excellent preventative measures have been taken in Italy to combat coronavirus and they’re now doing the same in Europe. The public’s health comes above everything else, sport included, of course.”