Sampdoria vs Inter Milan preview - Inter draw belief from Spurs fightback

Posted Sunday, March 17, 2013 by PA

A remarkable fightback against Tottenham gives Inter Milan reason to believe they can still book a Champions League place, according to Nerazzurri defender Andrea Ranocchia.

A dismal performance in London left Inter with a mountain to climb in the last 16 of the Europa League before last weekend's 1-0 home defeat to Bologna heaped further pressure on head coach Andrea Stramaccioni.

But the Nerazzurri rallied, countering Spurs' three-goal advantage with a dominant 4-1 win at San Siro, only for Emmanuel Adebayor's away goal to force Inter out of the competition.

Stramaccioni has pledged to make the most of the 10-game Serie A run-in and dislodge city rivals AC Milan from third place, and Ranocchia is convinced his team-mates can deliver on that promise.

Ahead of Sunday night's game at Sampdoria, he told inter.it: "The win over Tottenham shows we're still alive and kicking, still in there.

"We showed you can recover from an away defeat, even if you start 3-0 down. It proves we all believed it was possible.

"The lads that played (against Tottenham) will recover and will go into the Sampdoria match in a good frame of mind. We've been given a big psychological boost."

Defender Juan Jesus is suspended at the Marassi, while Walter Samuel, Joel Obi, Luca Castellazzi, Matias Silvestre, Yuto Nagatomo, Gabi Mudingayi, Diego Milito and Ricky Alvarez make up a lengthy injury list.

Winger Ezequiel Schelotto and Zdravko Kuzmanovic, however, were not included against Spurs and should feature in Genoa.

"We really must qualify for the Champions League," Ranocchia added. "There are a number of sides in the hunt for third place and we'll keep fighting until the end.

"We've had a tough time but difficult periods help you to grow and improve. You go through rough patches, that's inevitable, but we're all united and that's how we move forward.

"The squad are with Stramaccioni just like we've always been."

Sampdoria boss Delio Rossi, meanwhile, wants a swift response to last weekend's one-sided 3-1 defeat at Cagliari.

The Sardinians snapped Samp's six-game unbeaten streak behind closed doors at the Stadio Is Arenas and Rossi could not hide his rage at the final whistle.

He said: "It was a joke in an empty stadium. If I knew what the reason was behind this decline then I would have already remedied it but they simply did not do what I asked them to do."