Futsal: Preliminary Round kicks off

The San Marino Futsal Championship takes centre stage again after the Titano Futsal Cup Final Eight. It does so by resuming from the Preliminary Round, which will occupy the entire coming week. Tomorrow evening the eight teams that finished from 5th to 12th place will face off in the first legs, split between the Fiorentino and Domagnano courts – as will the return fixtures, scheduled for the following Thursday. Folgore are the highest-ranked side involved in this phase and, as usual, will meet the lowest, namely Faetano, who only clinched the coveted berth in the very last moments of the final day of the regular season. Neither side took part in the cup finals and have therefore had the time and opportunity to prepare properly for this two-legged tie, in which Folgore hold the advantage of the better league placing; in other words, if the aggregate score is perfectly level at the end of 120 minutes, it will be Zonzini’s men who go through. Any such calculations are naturally postponed to Thursday 14, while tomorrow will be crucial for both to try and build a cushion: Faetano will aim to reverse the trend of the regular season, which saw them lose to the Giallorossoneri both home and away, without ever finding the net; Folgore, for their part, will look to stay on that same path, adding to it the momentum of a strong end to the regular season, with six wins in seven matches.

On the same court – in Fiorentino – it will be Juvenes Dogana and Libertas’ turn to cross paths. Unlike those playing earlier, they both featured in the Futsal Cup Finals, going out in the quarter-finals. They have had less rest but certainly have more match rhythm in their legs in this recent period, which has also brought to Roberto Levani’s squad – he is one of the former players in this fixture – an important piece in Elia Michelotti, absent all season but arriving in time to help the Granata cause at the key moment. Libertas also finished the regular season on an upward curve (two wins), but the same can be said of Juvenes Dogana, whose final stretch featured three wins followed by a draw – albeit a prestigious one, taken off league leaders Murata. The advantage of the league position lies with Cellarosi’s men, who have beaten the Granata in every meeting this season. The same kind of benefit will be enjoyed by Pennarossa over Cailungo, although the Chiesanuova side cannot rely on two positive head-to-heads. The first match ended in a hard-fought win for the Biancorossi, while the second saw them lose to Pollini and Venerucci’s team, who have recently lost some momentum (three straight defeats) but had previously performed very well, securing access to the Preliminary Round well in advance. Moreover, the Borgo Maggiore outfit have fewer matches in their legs than their opponents, who went all the way to the semi-finals of the cup. Whether that proves to be an advantage or not will be revealed tomorrow on the Domagnano court.

Bringing the evening to a close at the same venue will be Domagnano and Cosmos. These two sides finished very close in the table – eighth and ninth, separated by just a single point – and also in their previous meetings this season, which saw a draw followed by a narrow win for the Giallorossi Wolves, who would also be able, if needed, to rely on their higher league placing at the end of the 120 minutes. Domagnano came within a whisker of a sensational Futsal Cup final, edged out – and overturned – by eventual champions Murata. Turning that disappointment into fuel to reach the league quarter-finals is what Fabio Gasperoni is asking of his players, while his opposite number – and former Domagnano man – Salvatore Franchino is hoping to rediscover the mental and physical energy that allowed his group, right after the first-leg meeting with Domagnano, to string together five wins in a row, as well as to claim valuable draws such as those with Murata, Pennarossa and Tre Penne – all, incidentally, finishing 3-3.

Here is the schedule for the first-leg fixtures of the league Preliminary Round: