Sampdoria coach Sinisa Mihajlovic paid tribute to his players for their attitude after they kicked off their 2014-15 Serie A campaign with a 1-1 draw away at Palermo.
Samp played over half of the game with 10 men but salvaged a point with a last minute equaliser from club captain Daniele Gastaldello.
“We were penalised by the red card to [Vasco] Regini but regardless we were able to stay calm and carry on playing without changing our style of play,” said Mihajlovic in his post-match comments to Sampdoria’s official website.
“I don’ t want to complain about the red card but for me it wasn’t a red card: the referee said it was for him and thus the matter ends here.
“We displayed the right spirit, even if in the future we need to make sure we are better balanced on the pitch.
“We knew before that it would be a difficult game and going down to 10 men made it harder.
“We believed we could get a good result right up until the end and in the end we got it.”
The Serbian coach also revealed how he tried to stay calm during his half-time team talk.
“In the break I said to the players to stay calm: they were quite sure that if we scored first then we could have gone on to win it.
“However, the important thing was to play as we know we can and we did that.”
