La Fiorita-Tre Penne: "It will be a great final between the two sides that most deserve to be there"

La Fiorita and Tre Penne meet again with the league title on the line, three years on from their last showdown. On that occasion the title was decided in Montecchio, where the club from Città prevailed after extra time (3-1). Extra time also cost La Fiorita the national crown last season, when the Gialloblù from Montegiardino fell to Folgore after ninety goalless minutes, before a decisive strike from former player Sottile turned the tie. In today’s press conference, those involved were in full agreement in their prediction: "Tomorrow it will be the two teams that have most deserved to reach the San Marino Stadium, for what they have shown and proved in the regular season and in the play-offs, facing each other" – emphasised Lasagni and Ceci. The Tre Penne coach added: "After twenty-eight matches, the teams were separated by just a single point in the table and I believe what we have seen in the knockout phase also supports the idea that La Fiorita and Tre Penne deserve to be here. We go into the last match of the year in good shape, on the back of a consistent run that we needed and had been missing for the last two seasons. I don’t think the heat and temperature will be particularly decisive factors; in the end we will be playing in the evening and the players will be able to recover on the pitch. We are ready and we want to give our very best right to the end". Oscar Lasagni’s thoughts were broadly along the same lines: "Beyond what the regular-season table said – which was certainly accurate – I think Tre Penne and La Fiorita have also played the best football over the course of this long and demanding season. Of course, when you play every three days it becomes much harder to keep performance levels high, but we are where we wanted to be. I am expecting a great final, which we will go into in the best possible condition, with only Gasperoni unavailable after his suspension in the semi-final". The La Fiorita core group is heading into yet another title decider, their third in the last four years. In fact, Montegiardino have only missed the season in which – due to restrictions linked to the pandemic – the league could not be completed. It is a blend of experience and quality perfectly embodied by Roberto Di Maio: "In our squad we have seven or eight players who in recent years have shown they can go all the way in every competition, achieving the targets the club set at the start of the season. La Fiorita want to play in European competitions and once again this year we have managed to do that. This is by no means an easy achievement – even if from the outside it might look otherwise. Let’s be honest,” Di Maio pointed out, “if on Sunday we had gone out in the semi-final against Pennarossa, for La Fiorita it would have been a failed season. The dynamics of the play-offs, with one-off ties like last year or tightly packed fixtures like this season, inevitably pile pressure on the team that has the most to lose. We did well to confirm ourselves at this level; now we hope to finish in style tomorrow night". A long-standing pillar of Tre Penne, Nicola Gai scored the goal that sealed – in terms of reaching the final – the outcome against Tre Fiori. It was a two-legged tie that became complicated early on, but was then decided by the quality at Ceci’s disposal: "On Sunday we were good at reacting to the difficulties we faced during the match, coming through them thanks to our strengths. In terms of resilience and mental toughness, I think it did us a lot of good and gave us something extra. Of course, tomorrow will be a different match: we will be playing for a title on a pitch that is different from those we are used to. We will therefore need to be smart, impose our football and develop our ideas, fully aware that we must minimise mistakes and make the most of the key moments that arise during the game". The final comments from the two coaches focused on the Stadium factor. In the recent Coppa Titano final, it was clear how the individual qualities of certain players – Gjurchinoski in particular – can be devastating on a pitch larger than the others in the Republic. According to Ceci, this "will not have that much impact, certainly not in terms of how we prepare for the match. The ideas and principles that have accompanied us throughout the year will remain the same. As for the individual characteristics of players, such as acceleration over 20-30 metres or runs in behind, I agree that in certain situations they can be decisive". La Fiorita will also refrain from any tactical revolution: "Over the course of the year we have built a playing system that we will obviously stick to tomorrow as well. It would be foolish to change things on the eve of a final. We will make a few adjustments, not so much to adapt to the size of the pitch as to the surface, which is different from the artificial ones we are used to playing on. I can count on talented players, technically gifted and good at attacking the space in behind. I am convinced that tomorrow evening the qualities of both teams will come to the fore, without any need to change their identities". The match will be refereed by Mattia Andruccioli, assisted by Gianmarco Ercolani and Laura Cordani. The fourth official will be Giacomo Cenci.

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