The South Tyrolean coach Federico Valente commented on his team’s performance against Sampdoria, who ultimately won 1-0 against the Alto Adige team: “I saw the team that accepted today’s battle, that after a couple of minutes settled down and tried to create something with the ball but, initially, they wanted to defend, knowing the individual qualities of Sampdoria. I’m sorry that we didn’t get anything from here, I think that today a point for us would have been deserved for how we took the game, for how the boys tried to defend and attack together. I always think that it’s important to maintain balance when you concede goals, because there’s the risk that you take it back immediately or score one; but first we had to stay calm and then, at a later stage, change the formation and go with two attackers in the second half.
In the second half we struggled to put pressure on their ball line but then we adapted and it was better. I’m happy for Pietrangeli’s first game, then with Koefler and Giorgini nearby who are two young players, for me they played a good game and perhaps deserved to take something home. First of all we had to put away those two Sampdoria strikers because, when they have immense quality when they have the ball; we managed to keep them away from the goal but you can’t defend everything, that cross was a moment of disorganization, but I’m happy for the three defenders.
On Venuti’s goal: “I saw that he cut from outside, maybe we could have followed the man but I haven’t analyzed it well yet, we’ll watch it with the team and try to find solutions on those balls. For me the boys deserved a point both today and against Brescia, now we’re at 9 but deserved, if we had now the tenth it wouldn’t have been stolen. We work every day with a defense like today that has never played together, with many absences and I don’t even want to complain, on the contrary big compliments to those who were on the pitch, maximum confidence in our squad”.