Like every year, we are in the final stages of this exhausting but beautiful Serie C championship, so each match can be worth not only the three points but also something more in terms of promotion or salvation. This Sunday I am in Lucca where, at 4.30pm, the local team will take the field against the surprising Carrarese in one of the many Tuscan derbies that group B of the third series showcases, resulting in the Campanili championship.
My first and only presence at the historic “Porta Elisa” stadium is now part of a football past, it dates back to almost twenty years ago when, in the 2005/2006 season, Lucchese faced Foggia in the then C1 series championship of the group B. Returning to current events, the penultimate day of the championship, the last within the friendly walls of the Rossoneri team, sees them play out their last faint hopes of a place in the play offs against a Carrarese team who created one of the best recent seasons, constantly in third place behind Torres and Cesena, absolute dominators of this championship, promoted to Serie B several days ago.
I arrive by bus and the limited time is also swallowed up by a delay in the vehicle, but thanks to the excellent work of the workers of the Tuscan club, in less than five minutes I am on the green lawn, a diligence and professionalism that I like to underline, in a football where photographing the ultras is not always frowned upon or facilitated.
In the away section the yellow and blue ultras, who arrived by train like in the old days, are present in good numbers and show off their various banners, warming their throats already in the pre-match. In the local curve however, the ultras all enter together just before 4.30pm. Before the kick-off, a minute of silence is observed to remember Mattia Giani, the twenty-six-year-old footballer from Castelfiorentino who died after falling ill during the match against Lanciotto at Campi Bisenzio: both fans display banners to remember him, “RIP MATTIA! ” signed Gironi Bui Luccawhile the North Curve Carrarese greets him with a simple “CIAO MATTIA”.
Just before the start, the guest contingent stages their own choreography consisting of a beautiful blanket of smoke bombs behind a large banner with the words “CHARGE!!!” and a mini-flag for those warned and several flags. Among the hosts, the disappointment towards the club and the players sees, as has already happened on some Sundays, the abstention from cheering for the first twenty minutes so that the scene is initially the exclusive prerogative of the Carrarina fans: chants accompanied by handclapping the entire sector, flags always flying and a powerful firecracker followed by a hostile chorus towards the people across the street, a demonstration of how heartfelt derbies are in Tuscany, even if the real derby only begins when the people of Lucca start cheering, demonstrating how much the component counts ultras inside a stadium.
The match in the stands of Lucca begins immediately by tagging the Carraresi who promptly respond in kind. Among their ranks, we note the presence of the Dutch from Almere, renewing a very heartfelt friendship while, again in terms of international relations, shortly afterwards the banner “POMPEY ARE CHAMPIONS!” is displayed, to celebrate the victory of League One of their English friends. Towards the end of the first half, however, the host corner hosts the long and pungent banner: “BONDERS THAT REMEMBER THE PAST, MASSESI AND LUCCHESI COLLABORATORS OF THE STATE”.
In the second half, the Rossoneri opened the contest with a torch, their waving of flags was constant but above all there was a high level of clapping to accompany chants of support for Lucchese but also of offense towards the guests. On the opposite side, it seems that the Carraresi have lost some of their initial compactness. After the banners “AJO MAURI, SEMPRE ULTRAS” and “CIAO HEIMO”, they resume cheering in a determined manner with the flags waved assiduously in the central part while, in the second line, they display another irreverent and offensive banner towards their neighbors.
In the seventy-third minute the match is unblocked in favor of the guests, thanks to a penalty scored by Finotto, who literally makes the Carraresem curve explode with joy where a blue smoke bomb is lit. The Lucchese team, despite the disadvantage, did not give up and after a blowout with some belts in the middle, they completed a performance of great consistency, in which we noticed some chants from behind the pitch, emblematic of the mood of the fans. A couple of torches lit in the home corner act as a prelude to the final whistle that ends the match.
The Luccas, who had already removed the patches for a few minutes, decide to leave without even saying goodbye to the team, while there is a big celebration under the host’s stadium, where the players join in the chants for several minutes. The thrill comes from the mathematical third place and therefore the possibility of starting the play offs from the second phase. Lucchese stops at 44 points, overtaken by Spal and reached by Sestri Levante and saved from the specter of the playoffs thanks to today’s defeat of Fermana. The curtain finally falls on this particular derby between two divided and completely different fans, which however confirm the particularity of Italy and even more of Tuscany football, where a few kilometers reserve diversity, rivalry and a wealth of stories and traditions that are lost in the mists of time, far beyond simple football.
Marco Gasparri
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