Sampdoria need points against pacesetters
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Article summary
UC Sampdoria will look to slow PSV Eindhoven's progress to the round of 32, mindful that the wrong result in Genoa could leave them high and dry at the wrong end of Group I.
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Article body
UC Sampdoria will look to slow PSV Eindhoven's progress to the UEFA Europa League round of 32, mindful that the wrong result in Genoa could leave them high and dry at the wrong end of Group I.
• Only defeat will stop PSV progressing on Matchday 5. Sampdoria will be out with a worse result against PSV than FC Metalist Kharkiv achieve at home against Debreceni VSC.
Previous meetings
•Balázs Dzsudzsák struck in the final minutes to earn PSV a 1-1 draw when the sides met on Matchday 1, cancelling out Fabrizio Cacciatore's first-half effort in what was Sampdoria's first meeting with Dutch opposition.
• PSV have played 19 games against Serie A opponents, with the record W6 D4 L9 (W0 D3 L6 in Italy). PSV have yet to win a game in Italy.
Match background
• Sampdoria have lost only once in their last 16 European home games, 1-0 to Metalist in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup round of 32.
• PSV are unbeaten in their last five European games – four wins and a draw, and have lost just two of their most recent nine continental away fixtures.
Team facts
• PSV are three shy of conceding their 100th goal in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League. Their 97 games in the two competitions to date have seen them concede an average of exactly one goal a game.
• Domenico Di Carlo took over as Sampdoria coach in the summer having served his coaching apprenticeship at Mantova FC, Parma FC and AC Chievo Verona. A defensive midfielder, he spent the best years of his career with Vicenza Calcio, returning to the northern club after retirement to work with the youth team.
• Hired in April 2009 just a month after being dismissed by FC Schalke 04, Fred Rutten won three titles with PSV as assistant to Guus Hiddink in the mid-2000s. A defender, he spent his entire playing career with FC Twente, moving straight from the pitch to the dugout as assistant coach in 1988.
• First given the top job in 1999, Rutten led Twente to success in the 2000/01 Dutch Cup before heading for PSV, initially to work with the youth team. He returned to Enschede in 2006, leaving for Gelsenkirchen two years later.
