Sampdoria coach Walter Mazzarri admits he has ambitions of qualifying for the Champions League this season.
"I would be happy to play in one of the two competitions and we are looking to avoid the Intertoto Cup unlike last year. A lot of our early problems started there.
"The turning point was against Palermo where we played nearly perfectly," the Tuscan insisted.
"From then on, we started to grow and the results came at a difficult time, especially given the absence of Cassano, Claudio Bellucci, Hugo Campagnaro and Vincenzo Montella."