Sampdoria vs AS Roma preview - Pallotta eager to move on

Posted Friday, October 24, 2014 by PA

Roma president James Pallotta has played down the importance of Tuesday's 7-1 defeat at home to Bayern Munich.

The Giallorossi travel to Genoa to face unbeaten Sampdoria on Saturday looking to put the midweek heavy loss firmly behind them.

That defeat was Roma's first in the Champions League this season and kept the Giallorossi in second place in Group E after three games played.

"Unfortunately just one of those days," Pallotta told club website www.asroma.it. "Watching the Boston Celtics over my life, we had many many bad days on the way to 17 championships.

"One day doesn't change anything.

"It happens on the way to glory."

Boston-born Pallotta was touched by the support shown by the 65,000 fans that turned up to watch Tuesday's game and never stopped cheering despite the embarrassing outcome at the Stadio Olimpico.

"I saw a video of our fans after the game: made me cry," he said. "You are the best in the world.

"So proud of being part of Roma."

Roma will now turn their attention to the domestic competition.

Rudi Garcia's side heads into the encounter at the Luigi Ferraris stadium having cut the gap with league leaders Juventus to one point.

The Giallorossi took advantage of Juventus' 1-1 draw at Sassuolo and beat Chievo 3-0 last weekend for their sixth win of the campaign.

Opponents Sampdoria are riding a seven-match unbeaten run in Serie A and are third in the table, three points behind Saturday's opponents.

The Blucerchiati had to settle for a 2-2 draw at Cagliari last weekend having taken a 2-0 half-time lead, much to the disappointment of coach Sinisa Mihajlovic.

"It's entirely our own fault that we didn't win this game," he said. "This draw feels like a defeat.

"We gave away a game that was already won and that is unacceptable."

The visitors will be without suspended defender Kostas Manolas while Sampdoria are without Fabrizio Cacciatore, with the Italian centre-back serving a one-match ban.