Futsal, Preliminary Round: all the favourites through as Fiorentino turn derby on its head

The first-leg match-ups had opened the door to a few possible surprises. Instead, the night devoted to the return legs fully restored the pecking order from the regular season. In short, all four sides who had finished above their respective opponents went through: Tre Penne, Domagnano, Cosmos and Fiorentino, strictly in order of their league position. Of the four, Fiorentino were the only team needing to make up lost ground. In the first leg it was Tre Fiori who had taken the derby: 4-2. Which meant Gianni Galli’s men had to win by at least two clear goals to progress. That requirement was duly met. But it takes more than half a match before the Rossoblù’s plans start to take shape. Deluigi and Righi score between 35’ and 37’, giving Fiorentino a useful but fragile advantage, because at that point a single goal would have been enough for Tre Fiori to wipe out their opponents’ efforts. Midway through the half Bernardi steps up to crush the Gialloblù hopes. The Tre Fiori goal does arrive – in added time, through Tamagnini – but it is not enough to overturn the outcome of the two-legged derby. 3-1, the same two-goal margin as in the first leg: Fiorentino reach the quarter-finals thanks to their better league position.

Domagnano, Cosmos and Tre Penne go through without needing this advantage. The Wolves were the only side who started from a first-leg win. Juvenes-Dogana try to put that win back in doubt with a 10-metre free-kick converted by Bagnasco right at the end of the first half. After the restart Santarini on one side and Borasco on the other are sent off at the same time, but in the 2’ of four versus four nothing happens to really unsettle the tie. The decisive moment comes instead right at the end, when Faetanini tucks away the ball that means the equaliser, his first goal celebration of the season and – ultimately – qualification, because at that point Juvenes-Dogana, with very little time left, are forced to score twice. They do not score at all: Domagnano advance and will face La Fiorita in the quarters.

However, at the final whistle of Juvenes-Dogana – Domagnano it was not yet clear who the Giallorossi’s opponents would be. They had to wait for the outcome of Cailungo – Tre Penne, a tie that had finished all square in the first leg: 1-1. Flammini immediately tries to frighten Penserini’s men, putting Cailungo in front, but Tre Penne cancel that out on 20’ with a fine strike from Gamba. Then Rossi, at the start of the second half, puts them ahead, only for that lead to be wiped out as well; Sarti keeps Cailungo’s hopes alive – they were just one goal away, at 2-2, from going through – but Venerucci’s men are sunk by Tre Penne’s late surge: Cola for 3-2 and Beinat, from the 10-metre mark, for the final 4-2. Tre Penne qualify as the best-ranked side and are paired with Virtus, fourth in the regular season, leaving Domagnano – the second best-ranked qualifier – to face La Fiorita. Fiorentino, the lowest-ranked qualifier, are instead drawn against the team who dominated the thirty matchdays, Murata.

Pennarossa – runners-up in the Single Group – “draw” their opponents from the other derby of the evening, Folgore v Cosmos. In the first leg the side from Falciano had fought back from 0-2 to 2-2. This time they cannot find the strength to respond to the Gialloverdi’s blows – four of them. The first comes on 6’, from Molinas. The Argentine-born player then gets his name on the scoresheet twice more in the second half, adding to the 2-0 goal scored by Zafferani: Folgore are out and Cosmos move into the quarter-finals, which will already kick off this Thursday with the first-leg ties, before being completed the following Monday.

Here is the full schedule of the Preliminary Round:

*teams in red have been eliminated from the competition