Futsal: Juvenes-Dogana book another derby, Domagnano beaten but through

Domagnano secure a place in the quarter-finals of the San Marino Futsal Championship, largely capitalising on the work done in the first leg. Murata – whose fate was already heavily compromised after last Thursday’s 4-0 defeat – can at least claim the credit of playing a brave match, without calculations, pushing Cellarosi’s team to within just two goals of a sensational comeback, ultimately thwarted by the Lupi’s resilience. Almost at the death, they also score the goal that finally settles it through Davide Dolcini. The first half remains locked at 0-0 for a long time. Murata’s breakthrough comes 4 minutes from the interval with a superb free-kick by Della Valle. But hanging over the black-and-whites is the Sword of Damocles of the exhausted bonus. At 0-0, Villa had fired wide Domagnano’s first 10-metre penalty. The second comes shortly after Della Valle’s opener: the ball is placed high up the pitch (on the edge of the penalty area), so Cavalli unleashes a powerful right-footed strike, brilliantly kept out by Lonfernini’s reflexes. There are still a few minutes to go before the sides switch ends. Murata mismanage a possession and Domagnano pounce on the chance to break quickly, finding the equaliser through Gracik’s tap-in. Straight from the restart, Ottaviani heads past Muraccini. Now Murata really believe. On 50 minutes the Bianconeri win a penalty and Casadei converts. Then Beinat’s touch makes it 4-1. Murata now need two more goals to knock out the Giallorossi. The latter, however, manage to limit the damage and, almost at the death, Davide Dolcini takes advantage of the opponents’ poor management of the flying goalkeeper to race towards the unguarded net and fire home the final 4-2 goal. In short, a hard-fought match resolved by a defeat that does no harm. And it is the only one of the evening. All the other teams who had won the first leg confirmed themselves in the return fixture. Libertas wobble for a while but eventually snuff out Pennarossa’s comeback attempt. After Davide Rossi had given the Granata the lead, the Biancorossi managed to turn the Fiorentino match their way thanks to goals from Selva and Ciacci. At that point, with one more goal, Pennarossa would have tilted the quarter-final towards the Castello of Chiesanuova. And the tie stays on a knife-edge for a long time. Seven minutes from time, Burioni brings some calm to Penserini’s group, who then definitively put salt on Pennarossa’s tail with further goals from Mazza and Taddei. It is a much more straightforward evening, instead, for Juvenes-Dogana who, buoyed by their first-leg victory and better league position, immediately open up the second-leg derby with Cosmos thanks to an unfortunate deflection off Vicini. Early in the second half, Borasco seals the double encounter in favour of the biancorossoazzurri, the only side to have kept a clean sheet in both evenings dedicated to the Preliminary Round. Virtus were closing in on the same feat, but are forced to give it up because of Moretti’s goal scored almost at the buzzer. In any case, things are going more than well for the Acquaviva side. At that point in the tie, in fact, Tre Penne were losing 5-0: after a goalless first half, Virtus had pulled away with goals from Giuliani, De Biagi, Paolo Casadei and a brace from Michelotti, the latter arriving after Dinatale’s 10-metre penalty had been saved by Angelo Casadei. Moretti’s goal is therefore just a minor blemish that Luca Pollini can easily forgive, given the overall performance of his players across the two legs. The quarter-final pairings are already known, with the first legs to be played this Monday: Libertas will take on league leaders Fiorentino, Juvenes-Dogana will contest another derby against Folgore, Domagnano will face Tre Fiori and Virtus will meet La Fiorita. Here is the complete picture of the Preliminary Round of the San Marino Futsal Championship:

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