Sampdoria vs AS Roma preview - Totti focused on beating Sampdoria after reaching milestone

Roma captain Francesco Totti will lead the Giallorossi onto the pitch at Sampdoria on Wednesday evening after reaching a milestone in his career.

Having not scored since May 31 of last season, Totti struck his 300th goal for Roma in Saturday's 2-2 draw with Sassuolo.

"To have scored 300 goals represents a lot, a beautiful number," Totti said on his official website. "However, I would have preferred to have won and taken three points against Sassuolo.

"In football, the aims of the group should always be above that of the individual and I'm only happy when Roma wins.

"On Wednesday, we will face Sampdoria in Genoa and our focus should be on the Blucerchiati and trying to get a positive result."

Roma, who are coached by Rudi Garcia, finished second to Juventus last season and are unbeaten so far in Serie A but they trail league leaders Inter Milan by four points.

The Romans have kept a clean sheet in just one of their opening five games.

"We need to identify the mistakes and try to eradicate them," Roma defender Alessandro Florenzi said. "Obviously, we try to win every match we play, unfortunately it doesn't always happen."

Sampdoria go into the encounter after Sunday's 2-0 loss at Torino - their first defeat of the campaign.

"We know the season is long and we are already looking forward to making amends on Wednesday against Roma," Sampdoria midfielder Fernando said on his club's official website.

"We know Roma are a top team but we will have the support of our fans in order to play a great game."

Samp have won their first two home games, scoring seven goals and conceding two in the process.

Roma have beaten Samp three times and lost just one of their last five league meetings.

"We are facing one of the strongest teams, one of the contenders for the scudetto," Samp coach Walter Zenga said. "We need to have the maximum concentration.

"It all depends on whether we accept the concept of taking Roma on head-on.

"All my previous games with Roma have been open with a lot of goals.

"Let us see how it goes, we want to be optimistic."

Former Roma forward Antonio Cassano is expected to start on the bench with Zenga set to field Luis Muriel alongside Citadin Eder in attack.

Garcia will have all of his players with the exception of injured goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

Morgan de Sanctis will again play between the posts.