Sampdoria vs Atalanta preview - Confidence high in Samp camp

Posted Saturday, October 04, 2014 by PA

Confidence is soaring in the Sampdoria camp as they head into Sunday's clash against Atalanta on the back of last weekend's 1-0 triumph in the Genoa derby.

Manolo Gabbiadini's goal downed fierce rivals Genoa and handed unbeaten Samp their third win of the season.

Samp are fourth in the Serie A standings, four points adrift of league leaders Juventus and Roma after five games played.

"We deserve to be in this high position in the standings because alongside Roma and Juve, we remain unbeaten this season," Samp coach Sinisa Mihajlovic said. "Our aim is to remain in the top half of the table for as long as possible and we will probably be there at least until the end of the year.

"It was important to win the derby and we deserved the victory considering my team's performance.

"I am happy because my player s are showing the right fighting spirit.

"However, this result will mean little if we don't beat Atalanta on Sunday."

Rivals Atalanta have taken just four points from a possible 15.

Last weekend's 3-0 reverse to Juventus was their third straight loss and dropped the Bergamaschi to 16th place.

"We are bitter not to have taken any points in our past three games," Atalanta defender Giuseppe Biava said. "But we knew it was never going to be easy considering that we have faced Fiorentina, Inter Milan and Juventus in the past week.

"We must now look ahead with optimism knowing that we can make life difficult for any rival."

Atalanta have struggled in front of goal, finding the net just twice in five games so far.

To complicate matters for Atalanta coach Stefano Colantuono, Argentinian striker Alejandro Gomez will miss Sunday's game at the Luigi Ferraris stadium with a muscular injury.

Veteran striker German Denis, who has yet to score this season, will play alongside Richmond Boakye in Atalanta's attack.b