League: Virtus face Tre Penne in Sunday’s shortened programme

Over the coming weekend, the first half of the BKN301 Campionato Sammarinese season will come to an end. It will also be a chance to see the various teams’ new entries in action following the opening of the winter transfer window. The Sunday menu is particularly slim, with only two of the eight fixtures scheduled: standing out among them is, without a shadow of a doubt, the top clash of the entire weekend. League leaders Virtus will take on fourth-placed Tre Penne. Bizzotto’s side have rediscovered a certain consistency of results after the defeat – their only one so far – suffered two rounds ago against Cosmos. The Neroverdi’s mission will be to claim a third consecutive win and, at the same time, send out another strong message in the title race, showing that the slip-up against the Gialloverdi was just a blip in an otherwise excellent campaign, cup included. Tre Penne, by contrast, are going through a rough spell, with two defeats in a row, and desperately need a strong response on the pitch to trigger a change of momentum. It is hard to imagine a more testing assignment than the one awaiting Ceci and his men. The match will be played in Montecchio. La Fiorita will try to put pressure on the leaders. The Montegiardino side, second and two points off top spot, are coming off a long winning streak, the latest success – nothing short of emphatic – coming at the expense of Domagnano. A win on Saturday would allow Manfredini’s men to move temporarily above Virtus and further “hype up” the latter’s showdown with Tre Penne. It will be up to Cailungo to try and spoil the Gialloblù party. Iencinella and his team are emerging from a poor run of four games which has badly dented their league position. What they are looking for is therefore a turning point, fully aware they will need a performance above and beyond to trouble one of the standout sides on the Titano. This will be one of the two Saturday fixtures kicking off at 18:15. The other will see San Giovanni and Juvenes-Dogana go head-to-head, level on 17 points. The Serravalle team are looking to extend the momentum they picked up two rounds ago: since then, it’s been two more wins for Amati’s men, who will nonetheless be wary of underestimating a Rossoneri side that lost last weekend against Virtus (no minnows) and which previously had strung together three consecutive victories. Among the teams watching the big clash between Virtus and Tre Penne with the greatest interest are Cosmos, Murata and Tre Fiori: the first two are hot on the heels of the San Marino Città side, while the latter are two points ahead of them. Tre Fiori, however, will be the only one of the three that will not be able to put pressure on Tre Penne. The Gialloblù will in fact be playing at the same time, namely at 15:00 on Sunday. Their opponents will be Domagnano, who must do everything they can to erase the heavy 1-6 suffered last weekend against La Fiorita. The Lupi are looking very closely at Fiorentino, who on Saturday face a Murata side that got back to winning ways against San Marino Academy and have closed the gap on fourth place, currently occupied by Tre Penne. Standing in the Bianconeri’s way will be Fiorentino, who began the year well by edging past Faetano. Ground has also been made up by Cosmos, who will be aiming to extend their golden run in the match against Faetano, who have not celebrated a win for two rounds. The team led once again by Girolomoni must defend a very slim cushion over Libertas, who are themselves coming off two defeats and need to rediscover their smile in the clash with bottom side Pennarossa, still without a win in this campaign. In second-from-bottom spot remain San Marino Academy who, however, are not facing an unbridgeable gap to the sides above them, especially Cailungo. The young side coached by Matteo Cecchetti, who began 2024 with defeat against Murata, are looking for redemption in their match with Folgore, who arrive on the back of victories over Fiorentino and Pennarossa, the latter by a truly overwhelming scoreline. All of this weekend’s matches will again be available completely free of charge on the Titani.TV platform. Here is the programme for Matchday 15 of the league season, the last round of the first half of the campaign:

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