Emiliano Viviano is really looking forward to his very first Derby della Lanterna with Sampdoria” data-scaytid=”5″>Sampdoria on Sunday.
Emiliano Viviano is really looking forward to his very first Derby della Lanterna with Sampdoria on Sunday.
The 28-year-old goalkeeper on loan from Palermo says he hopes his teammates are, however, careful not to get too caught up in all the fanfare and emotion which is already palpable across town.
“It’s the first time that I am experiencing this derby, we feel the rivalry but hopefully it doesn’t affect us in a bad way,” Viviano told Sky Italia.
“The city makes us really live this rivalry, we will need to do well to keep cool heads.
“I prefer to do little on the field because that means that the team did well and didn’t need me.
“We have players in the team that have lived many derbies, we have to understand that there’s a championship to play for and that one game, no matter how important, is not going to determine a championship.
“In a derby there are never favourites not even when there’s a big gap between the teams, and now we’re very close.
“From our side we want to put points in the bag to contribute towards finishing the season well, we hope to close out the season on the left side of the standings and ahead of Genoa.
“It seems to me that the President lives these games with a lot of intensity, he’s put together a good team, and then it always comes down to the results.”
As Viviano pointed out, one man who does have plenty of derby experience is Sampdoria Coach Sinisa Mihajlovic.
“The Coach has the fortune or misfortune to play with all the teams that had a derby, so he knows these tests well and prepares them well.
“He’s a Coach who always says what he thinks and it’s not easy to find someone like this.”