San Marino Talent Cup: second edition of the tournament kicks off on 18 August

After the excellent organisation of the inaugural edition, which saw Bologna claim victory in the final on the Dogana artificial pitch against Perugia (3-2), the San Marino Talent Cup is ready to take centre stage again right after the mid-August holiday. The tournament, organised by the San Marino Football Federation and open to Under-18 and Under-19 sides, will again feature last year’s two finalists – who are therefore seeded as the top teams in the two groups – along with Cesena and San Marino Academy. The new entries, of the highest prestige, are Ascoli and Sassuolo.

The six teams, drawn into two groups of three (with the exception of the two seeded clubs), will play the qualifying phase at the Acquaviva Stadium and the “Ezio Conti” Stadium in Dogana on 18, 20 and 22 August according to the following schedule:

The finals are scheduled for Monday 24 August and will follow this programme, which will also involve the Montecchio ground.

The qualifying matches will be played over 90 minutes and, if level at full-time, will go straight to a penalty shoot-out, with no extra time. A win on penalties will be worth two points to the winning team and one to the losing side. To determine the standings in the event of two or three teams finishing level on points, the following criteria will be applied, in order: i) points obtained in head-to-head matches; ii) goal difference in all group matches; iii) highest number of goals scored; iv) drawing of lots. The maximum number of substitutions allowed is seven, while suspensions for accumulation of cautions will be triggered after two yellow cards.