Titano Futsal Cup, time for the leaders: the two semi-finals tomorrow evening

Last Thursday’s quarter-finals saw reigning champions Fiorentino and Virtus knocked out of the competition. Tre Fiori and Domagnano instead claimed wins that allowed them to continue their pursuit of the 2021-22 Titano Futsal Cup. Now, for Bugli’s and Mussoni’s sides, it is time to raise the bar again as they face the group-stage leaders: Folgore and Juvenes-Dogana had finished top of their respective groups and, for that reason, earned the right to skip the first play-off round. But tomorrow, after a Thursday spent watching from the sidelines, it will be their turn too: the two clashes in Fiorentino will decide who reaches the grand final on 13 May, the match that will once again award the title after two “blank” seasons due to the pandemic. It starts with Juvenes-Dogana v Tre Fiori, two sides that did not share either their league group or their cup group. Therefore, there has been only one head-to-head this season, on 10 March, when the Gialloblù managed to overcome the Biancorossoazzurri 4-1. It was a result in line with Juvenes-Dogana’s general league form, but so far they have been able to find unexpected energy on the cup front. In addition, in the final matchdays of the league regular season, up to just a week ago, Zonzini’s team, despite already being out of the play-off race, noticeably changed gear, finishing their campaign with a run of four straight wins – including one that ended Folgore’s perfect unbeaten record – and thus launching themselves psychologically into the hottest and most important phase of their season. Whether all this will be enough to contain the strength Tre Fiori displayed in the quarter-finals is what will be discovered tomorrow in a tie refereed by Lanuti, Piccoli and Ercolani. The second semi-final, by contrast, pits together two teams that have got to know each other very well over the course of the season. Folgore and Domagnano have shared both their league group and their cup group, and therefore already have three meetings behind them this season. All three have gone Folgore’s way; after all, they had won every match they played up until the very final stretch of the league regular season, when, somewhat unexpectedly, came a draw and a defeat, against Fiorentino and Juvenes-Dogana respectively. Were these merely lapses in concentration after a perfect run that offered few remaining motivations before the play-offs, or, as Domagnano hope, significant cracks that have dented the apparent invincibility of Spada’s juggernaut – cracks the Wolves, buoyed by their victory over the reigning champions, will try to force open as they chase a cup final that has eluded them since 2010-11 and, in broader terms, any final since 2015-16 (league), when it was Danilo Busignani – now playing for Folgore – who struck in extra time to sink the Giallorossi and deliver the Scudetto to Tre Fiori. The officials are Notarpietro, Lerza and Ercolani. Here is the semi-final schedule for the Titano Futsal Cup:

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