As Gao Zheng said, when head coach Di Francesco told the whole team about the new goal in training, no one showed fear and retreat, but was very excited.

A team needs a clear goal, whether it's relegation or title contention.

Before that, Sampdoria was in a very awkward position - whether it was the league or the Champions League, it was impossible to compete for the title, but without the fear of relegation, the team could easily have the idea of getting by.

At this time, the goal of winning the Coppa Italia is very important.

This Sampdoria team is dominated by young players, and the advantage of young players is that they are easily motivated, full of fighting spirit and drive. They always have a vigor in them, unlike those veteran oilers who have no interest in anything and feel that nothing matters.

Seeing that everyone supported his plan, Di Francesco was happy and began to arrange tactics against Roma.

'I guess Roma will think we're going to give up this game, because that's what we've always had. So there's no need for them to waste the fitness and energy of their main players on a team that has no intention of fighting, and that's our chance to catch them off guard! ”

※※※

Sampdoria and Roma's Coppa Italia match is not a big event, everyone now knows that the Coppa Italia is a special competition for young players and substitutes, and it will probably be until the semi-finals that everyone will go all out.

There was nothing to see in the previous games.

So even though the Stadio Olimpico in Rome can accommodate 73,000 people, only 20,000 people came to the game, and the whole stadium looks sparse.

In fact, 20,000 is a lot, for example, Sampdoria has some home games that are the number of spectators. But the Malasi Stadium can only accommodate more than 30,000 people in total, and 20,000 people sitting in it are still spectacular.

The Olympic Stadium is so big that 20,000 people can't fill the stadium at all, and there are more empty seats than people, so it looks particularly empty and deserted.

Pre-match media analysis believes that Sampdoria will give up this game, and the previous Italian Cup Sampdoria have shown obviously, with all substitutes and a starting lineup composed of youth team members, what does this mean, a fool can guess.

However, perhaps the previous opponents were not strong enough, so Sampdoria used such a lineup to reach the top 16.

In fact, Sampdoria is also embarrassed - they want to give up the Coppa Italia, and they don't want to add another front when the Champions League and the league are going on at the same time......

As their opponents, although Roma also played the Coppa Italia with the calculation of training, it does not mean that they must want to give up the Coppa Italia. Now is the time for them to end Sampdoria's suffering and help them lighten their burdens.

The media on the Roman side felt that this was simply a mutually satisfactory result.

So when Sampdoria announced the starting lineup two hours before the start of the game, no one expected it and was taken aback.

Sampdoria turned out to be the main force in the game!

Didn't you say that it was better to use the substitute lineup and youth team players?

Didn't you say you were going to give up this chicken rib event?

Now that Gao Zheng has started, does this mean to give up?!

Are you kidding!

In the dressing room in Roma, Roma manager Rudy Garcia was also surprised to see the starting line-up.

Then came a deep confusion, and he couldn't understand what reason Di Francisco had to do this.

Does he still think his team hasn't played enough games?

With a team like Sampdoria that basically relies on a set of lineups to win the world, there is no extravagance to fight on multiple fronts and go hand in hand.

The league is the foundation of the team's life, and if the league is not played well, everything will be in vain.

The Champions League is related to the team's financial income, and the better the Champions League results, the more bonuses, which is a huge amount of money for many clubs.

But what's so appealing about the Coppa Italia?

Could it be that Sampdoria want to pursue the Coppa Italia title?

The thought flashed through Rudy Garcia's mind, and then he dismissed it - impossible, impossible, Sampdoria didn't have such ability, and shouldn't have such ambitions, they were still very pragmatic.

Garcia realised that now was not the time to delve into why Sampdoria did what they did, and that the most important thing was how to deal with Sampdoria who were playing with the main force.

When Rudy Garcia took charge of Roma this season, they have only played one game against Sampdoria – in the fifth round of the league, Sampdoria host Roma.

But in that game, Di Francisco did not start the main players, but adopted the strategy of playing the starting role with most of the substitutes.

In the final game, Sampdoria lost 0:2 at home to Roma without any suspense.

became the fifth victim of Roma's 10-game winning streak at the start of the season.

This is Rudy Garcia's most intuitive impression of this Sampdoria team, the only contact.

Sadly, the only time he came into contact with Roma was not Sampdoria in the strongest line-up, so Garcia didn't know what level Sampdoria was at full strength.

In this game, Rudy Garcia rotated the team's starting lineup with the idea of training, and many of the main players were not in the starting lineup.

It's impossible to make any last-minute changes at this point – he can't take those substitutes who could have played from the starting lineup, right? That would be a big shake to his coaching foundation in this team.

So no matter what happens to Sampdoria's side, he can only use this lineup to face it.

He can only hope that Sampdoria, who is playing with all the main forces, is not very good.

Consider the last league game, didn't they also lose 0-2 away to Napoli?

※※※

After the start of the game, although the lineup was rotated and Sampdoria was caught off guard. However, Roma still used home advantage to play their best attacking game.

Roma had a golden chance in the sixth minute and their right wing-back Torosidis would have taken the lead had it not been for Sergio Romero's performance.

The Stadio Olimpico resounded with the regretful sighs of Roma fans.

Rudy Garcia was also disappointed on the sidelines, but he was quick to convey his encouragement and appreciation to the team with a gesture of applause.

Judging from these few minutes of play, Sampdoria seems to be no different from when they met in the league.

This reassured Garcia a lot.

Roma, playing at home, still took the initiative.

As long as he can focus on me and stick to his own rhythm and style, Garcia feels that with Roma's strength, even if he rotates the lineup, it should not be a problem to beat Sampdoria.

From the beginning of the game, he did not sit down, pacing around with some anxiety on the sidelines.

Now he can finally go back to the dugout, sit down and have a drink of water and get some rest.