Giampaolo: “Result harsh on us”

Marco Giampaolo was unable to make it a winning return to the Sampdoria dugout as Spezia edged to a 1-0 victory – a result the boss feels was less than his side deserved.

“The result is harsh on us because we approached the game seriously and the players did what I asked,” he observed after the final whistle. “Given how little time we’ve had, the lads were very well organised and focused on the small details.

“Spezia are on the up because they’ve had some great results and were in an ideal mindset coming into it. We weren’t but I can’t fault my players, although maybe we were lacking a little in the finishing department.”

Albin Ekdal’s second yellow and subsequent red card tipped the game in Spezia’s favour – a decision Giampaolo didn’t agree with.

“Ekdal had never been sent off in his 300+ career games. I don’t think the right yardstick was used
in that situation.

“We could’ve scored through [Francesco] Caputo just before we went down to ten men and could’ve equalised with that header. We struggled to get shots away, but so did Spezia.

“There are always after-effects when you lose but we have to wipe the slate clean because there are another three points to play for in the next one. We mustn’t let the result influence us.

“If you’ve left nothing on the pitch, then you can go again after that. If we do that, we can get ourselves out of this,” he concluded.