Serie A kick-off, Europe League consolation

I’m still far, far too distraught to write anything coherent about that Bremen game. This most probably makes me a terrible blogger, but my utterly subjective fandom far outweighs my desire to think about something that made me weep like a little child. From all the supportive comments on the last post, it seems as though I wasn’t the only one that had my carpet of jubilation ripped out from under me last Tuesday. Thanks for the support, Samp fans.

If you didn’t see the game, here’s a summary: after 13 minutes, deficit overturned with Pazzini header and magnificent Pazzini header. Icing on the cake added with five minutes to go by Cassano. Thirty seconds to play – Bremen aggregate equaliser. Extra time – Bremen away goal killer punch. Me on the floor, switching unpredictably between tears of despair and screams of sheer disbelief.

So Europa League it is, and our opponents will be PSV of the Netherlands, Debrecen of Hungary and Metalist of Ukraine. On paper, it looks doable, but progress depends on how seriously Samp take the Europa League, and how the team bounces back from the heartbreaking Bremen defeat. I have a niggling fear that that was the sort of game that can shatter a season before it has even started.

On Sunday, we welcome Lazio to the Marassi for the Serie kickoff. Lazio had a miserable year last season, but managed to turn their form around towards the end of the campaign to avoid getting stuck in a relegation dogfight. They’ve got a solid coach in Edy Reja and should be a lot more organised than last year. As I said, we’re going to need to show our ‘boucebackability’ in a big way over the coming months. Pazzini’s wonder goal won’t have gone unnoticed, and we simply must keep hold of him until the transfer window closes at the end of August. We’ll have a big battle to keep hold of our fourth place this year, with Juve looking particularly menacing. A victory right from the off is a must to build up momentum.

Forza Samp!

Category: Europa League, Serie A