Championship: teams take the field for Matchday 27 under the banner of the CAFE Week of Action

With the fixtures from Matchday 15 completed in the recent midweek double-header, the Campionato Sammarinese is ready to get back on track with its original schedule. Tomorrow will see four early kick-offs for Matchday 27, with La Fiorita and Tre Penne continuing their long-distance tussle for top spot, and Tre Fiori-Folgore undoubtedly shaping up as one of the highlights of the entire round, not least given the pedigree earned by both sides in recent seasons. This year, however, the reigning yellow-and-red champions have struggled to hit their stride: seventh place does not accurately reflect the heights reached twelve months ago, but Omar Lepri’s squad remains a threat to anyone. What is more, the Falciano side have recently found a certain consistency in their performances – three draws and a win in their last four outings – which certainly brings extra motivation and mental energy in a period of intense workload, when almost everyone is having to deal with injuries, niggles and heavy legs. Consistency is in fact a very current topic also in the Tre Fiori camp: the team, now under Gian Luca Borgagni after Floriano Sperindio, are on a sixteen-game unbeaten run (winning half of those), have taken all three points in each of the last two rounds and have kept four consecutive clean sheets. These numbers have recently allowed the yellow-and-blues to consolidate third place and start casting more than a glance at second. No suspensions were picked up in the last round either for Folgore or for Tre Fiori: the two sides, currently separated by 12 points, will do battle in Fiorentino under the guidance of referee Domenico De Girolamo. As mentioned, La Fiorita and Tre Penne will be duelling for top spot on different pitches. The latter, after two draws and a rest day, still hold first place, but their lead over the Città side has been trimmed to just two points, really too slim a margin for Stefano Ceci and his players to sleep easy. Having survived the midweek scare, with La Fiorita missing the chance to go top thanks to their head-to-head record, the Biancoazzurri now look to get back to winning ways at the expense of Fiorentino – the very side that slowed Montegiardino’s charge last Tuesday. By doing so, Malandri’s men would give further continuity to the good results of recent weeks, a run they intend to extend tomorrow by claiming a major scalp. The match, refereed by Emiliano Albani, will be played at the Domagnano Stadium. La Fiorita, meanwhile, will be in action in Montecchio against Domagnano, who have recently straightened out their form and tightened up at the back, with three consecutive clean sheets. The bar is now being raised for the Wolves, who are looking for further breathing space after pulling away from the hottest part of the Single Group table. Mazzavillani will be absent through suspension; Andrea Piccoli will referee. The other early fixture will see Cosmos take on Cailungo. Both are coming off a defeat, but with a very different impact given their respective targets: the red-and-greens had been trying, albeit in small steps, to get back into the race for the Preliminary Round, while the yellow-and-greens, bottom and still without a win, have presumably long since had to abandon that ambition. Erasing the 0-4 defeat to Faetano and resuming the chase of the San Giovanni-Murata duo – currently the last two teams in position to qualify for the post-season and facing each other on Sunday in a direct showdown - are the dominant thoughts in the camp of Protti’s side, who will cross paths with Bobo Gori’s team on the Acquaviva pitch. Marinaro is suspended and will miss out. Elison Luci will take charge of the game. Sunday will bring the head-to-head clash between Virtus and Pennarossa. Both returned to winning ways during the midweek round and come into this fixture separated by just three points, with fourth-placed Virtus looking to close the gap on the podium positions and fifth-placed Pennarossa eager to wipe out their deficit and also to take advantage of Faetano’s rest day, with the sixth-placed side just one point behind the Biancorossi. Gigi Bizzotto will be without the suspended Alex Nodari. The match will be played in Domagnano and refereed by Andrea Mei. Having avoided a late defeat to Folgore thanks to an Olcese penalty, Libertas are demanding a return to winning ways from themselves in their meeting with Juvenes-Dogana, second from bottom in the group and able to pick up just one point from their last three matches. Not that Libertas have done much better: they have collected only two points from their last three outings, and changing gear is the clear objective for the Borgo Maggiore side, who will have to cope without suspended Barretta, while on the opposite side Mezzadri is also banned. The “Crescentini” Stadium in Fiorentino will host the match, entrusted to referee Outail Kaddoudi. Murata-San Giovanni will be a sort of play-off, with temporary safety from the cut-off line at stake between those who will extend their season beyond Matchday 30 and those who will not. The two sides are level on 23 points right on that boundary line: below them begins the list of those currently out of contention, with Cailungo, however, not so far away – six points back – that they could not become threatening again as early as this round, should they take maximum points against Cosmos. The red-and-greens are therefore watching with great interest the direct clash between their two rivals, which will inevitably cost at least one of them, if not both, vital points. The stakes are extremely high, then, in a match to be played on the Montecchio pitch, with Antonio Ucini appointed to lead the designated refereeing team. Marco Tognacci will be without Lorenzo Montebelli, suspended by the Sports Judge for an accumulation of yellow cards. This will also be the weekend when the FSGC will roll out initiatives linked to the CAFE Week of Action, with the aim of raising public awareness on issues of inclusion and accessibility, so important and so topical also in the world of football. For this reason, before kick-off all teams will display a banner towards the main stand to demonstrate San Marino football’s commitment to supporters with disabilities. On the same wavelength is the initiative of the match with audio-descriptive commentary for blind and visually impaired users held last Saturday with the support of the new Spiideo automatic cameras. The footage, from San Giovanni-La Fiorita, has been available since yesterday on the FSGC YouTube channel. The invitation from the Football Federation, which has always been at the forefront alongside CAFE (Centre for Access to Football in Europe), is to devote at least fifteen minutes to watching the match with your eyes closed, to enter into the perceptive dimension of those who do not have the sense of sight but, like everyone else, have every right to be part of the match-day experience. The initiative will be repeated on the occasion of the friendly between San Marino and Lithuania on 25 March. Here is the full schedule for Matchday 27 of the league:

---