Motivation. A determining factor in sports games, and one that can often turn the tide of insurmountable odds in your favor. A factor that was also completely absent from the minds of Sampdoria‘s players Wednesday, as they travelled to Ukraine’s Metalist in the hopes of overturning a 0-1 first leg deficit.
Indeed by taking a look at the team sheets right before even the match had started, it was very clear Mazzarri & friends had travelled to Kharkiv primarily out of fairplay: Cassano, Palombo, and Delvecchio had all stayed in Genoa, with only the latter on the injury list. With the incumbent match against Milan this week-end and next week’s Coppa Italia fixture vs. Inter, something’s gotta give: the UEFA Cup evidently, wasn’t high on the Blucerchiati priority list this year.
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