Football, First Category: Vigevano beaten 3-2 in Locate, the last 90′ decisive for the Promotion

We will have to wait for the last day of the championship next Sundaybut it might not be enough, to understand who will ultimately manage to prevail in the long “tug of war” between Vigevano and Viscontea to win Group I of the First Category and rise to Promotion. This evening the now infamous recovery of the Locate match took place, with Vigevano forced to play the missing 51 minutes after last Thursday the Territorial Sports Court of Appeal annulled the first degree ruling of the Sports Judge. Once the 3-0 had been ruled out and the Biancocelesti were brought back to just two points ahead of Viscontea, the match resumed from the 3-1 in favor of the home team which had occurred at the time of the interruption due to the fault in the lighting system.

But be careful why in Locate we experienced a grotesque situation to say the least. Upon arrival at the camparound 8pm, one of the pylons had only one light out of four on. In short, nothing had changed since last March 13th. Nervousness skyrocketed, especially on the part of Vigevano, while the hosts didn’t know what to say given that the Municipality had assured that everything would be in order. The proposal to play on the adjacent field is then put forward; at first the referee did not seem to agree (arguing that it was not logical to continue a match on a different pitch from which it had started), but after half an hour the NLD gives its assent. Vigevano tries to attack the match straight away in the difficult task of recovering the double disadvantage. But there is too much frenzy and as the minutes pass, Locate manages to raise the defensive line. There is a series of long throws in an attempt to speed up the maneuver, but in the end it is a continuous back and forth. The biggest opportunity in what remains of the first half is a cross by Zanellati with Limiroli anticipated by the exit of the Locate goalkeeper. In the second half the situation doesn’t change until the 25th minute when Migheli manages to take advantage of a cross coming from the right with his head: 3-2. The match is reopened, also because a draw would have changed things a lot, bringing Vigevano back to +3 on Viscontea with the possibility of taking advantage of two results out of three next Sunday. At the half hour mark an opportunity for Codagnone, then Lombardo also comes on in place of Mattia Portaluppi to try to exploit centimeters and weight on crosses into the area, but nothing changes and in the final the game is also interrupted for several minutes due to a cut on the eyebrow arch of Limiroli who requests an ambulance to intervene. In seven minutes of injury time, Locate repelled Vigevano’s latest attacks, thus guaranteeing access to the play-offs.

Also in light of this evening’s farce, it goes without saying that the decision to have the match replayed was somewhat surprising taking into consideration the precedents where objective responsibility had almost always fallen on the host team, even if the facility is owned by the municipality, as in almost all cases. But now there is no point in digging it up, also because Vigevano remains the master of its destiny in any case and, from a purely sporting point of view, it is certainly better to win on the pitch than thanks to a fortuitous event.

Sunday next Vigevano and Viscontea will be away from home against Torre d’Isola and Casorate respectivelytwo teams with water up their throats. If Vigevano wins they will be promoted, if they draw and are caught by Viscontea a promotion play-off will be necessarywhile we don’t even want to take the third hypothesis into consideration.