Sampdoria vs Palermo preview - Samp hoping to cash in

Posted Sunday, May 15, 2011 by PA

Relegation-threatened Sampdoria will be hoping Palermo's players suffer the after-effects of their Coppa Italia semi-final celebrations when the teams meet at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Serie A.

The Sicilians completed a 4-3 aggregate victory over Scudetto winners AC Milan at La Favorita on Tuesday night to reach their first Coppa Italia final in 32 years.

Palermo with face holders Inter Milan in the final in Rome later this month.

Inter have already secured a place in next season's Champions League, meaning Palermo will be granted the final Europa League qualifying spot.

"We fully deserved to go through to the final," said Palermo coach Delio Rossi. "The team fought and followed my orders and if a group follows the coach, it can obtain important results.

"We are a serious team and we proved that by beating a strong side like Milan.

"We wanted to give some joy to our fans and we have achieved that.

"This is also significant considering we will also play in Europe next season."

Palermo will now look to follow up the 2-1 triumph over Bari which lifted them to eighth in the standings.

Rossi is set to rest some of his first-team regulars for the trip to Genoa following their midweek exertions.

Samp find themselves in the relegation dogfight and their chances of survival suffered a major setback with a 2-1 loss at Genoa last weekend.

The result dropped the Blucerchiati into the bottom three for the first time this season.

They lie 18th in the standings - two points behind Lecce, who hold the last position of safety - with two games remaining.

A defeat against Palermo could see Samp join Brescia and Bari in the second tier if results in other games also go against them.

Samp coach Alberto Cavasin is aware of the challenge his side face as they end the season at Champions League hopefuls Roma after the game against Palermo.

"Time is running out and we have to snap out of this situation," he said. "We need a win against Palermo and then we need to go to Rome and beat Roma.

"It will be very tough but that is the only hope we have if we want to defend our Serie A status."

The hosts will be without Reto Ziegler and Daniele Mannini tomorrow through suspension.