Fezzanese and Livorno
© photo by G. Andreuccetti, Amaranta.it
La Spezia – The last match of the regular season between mister Giulio Ponte’s Fezzanese and Matteo Brisciani’s Livorno ends with a draw: despite the numerical inferiority which left the amaranths in numerical inferiority for almost an hour due of Jihed Jendoubi’s expulsion in the 39th minute and thanks to the providential saves of Danko Ciobanu who also saved Mattia Roncarà’s spot kick in the 4th minute, Livorno managed to return from Liguria with a very important point, which allows the amaranth to maintain the one-point advantage they had over Sangiovannese, stopped by Figline at 2-2, and to go and play, against the white and blues, the playoff play-off on Wednesday 1 May at 4.00 pm with the advantage of playing among the friendly walls.
In light of the results achieved yesterday – Tau Altopascio conquered the Mobilieri Ponsacco pitch with the result of 1 to 2 and L’Aquila Montevarchi went on to win in Ghivizzano with the score of 1 to 7 – Livorno ended the regular season in third place in Group F of the National Juniores championship with 49 points, the result of 14 wins, 7 draws and 3 defeats, behind Tau Altopascio, who took the lead in the standings with 58 points, and of L’Aquila Montevarchi which, with yesterday’s success in Ghivizzano, secured second place at 53 points: behind the amaranths, Sangiovannese is fourth with 48 points, as well as Fezzanese and San Donato Tavarnelle, fifth and sixth respectively with 42 points.
Without the injured Boroduŝka, the suspended Sottile and Tani, as well as Marinari, Pavlenko and Vallini kept in various capacities on early warning in view of the first team’s commitments, coach Matteo Brisciani proposed the 3-4-1-2 seen seven days earlier against Sangiovannese with Ciobanu in goal, Haka supporting the line of defenders completed by Savshak and Frroku, Pacifico returned to his role as midfield director and Jendoubi behind an unprecedented attacking tandem, formed by Bottoni and Angelotti. on the opposite front, mister Giulio Ponte lined up his starting eleven with a 3-5-2 played in an ultra-offensive manner, with the aim of bringing home the full result.
After an initial study phase in which the two teams competed without risking any particular injury, Fezzanese, fresh from four consecutive victories, took control of the game and began to produce scoring opportunities with a certain continuity. , denoting a certain imprecision in front of goal in some situations and putting Ciobanu’s reflexes to the test in others: in the 4th minute Luca Carli concluded an action that followed the development of a corner kick with a sky-high shot; in the 12th minute Ciobanu did well to block a shot from Roncarà, capable of freeing himself from his direct opponent on the left front; in the 20th minute, Roncarà himself freed himself with a shot on the edge of the area and finished just wide of the post, just outside to Ciobanu’s left; in the 28th minute, Ferrari picked up on a misguided defensive disengagement from Pacifico and challenged Ciobanu with a precise shot from outside the area, blocked by the Portoferraio native goalkeeper; in the 35th minute, Battini took a real penalty kick on the move and, despite displacing Ciobanu by throwing himself on the opposite side, he finished wide; finally, in the 46th minute, Sacchelli made an interesting descent, but finished nothing to Ciobanu’s right.
To Fezzanese’s increasingly insistent forcing, Livorno, today simultaneously without Marinari and Pavlenko, tried to oppose with an interesting through pass from Tantardini to Jendoubi in the 9th minute, which however did not materialize into a dangerous action, with a kick free kick by Angelotti in the 32nd minute, with a descent to the left by Pacifico and a cross shot not collected by any of his teammates in the 32nd minute and a header by Bottoni in the 45th minute, who did well to collect a ball coming from a throw-in .
At the end of the first half of the game, at minute n. 39, the real turning point of the match took place: Jendoubi, booked five minutes earlier for protests, committed a useless foul against an opponent at the height of the midfield circle and left the team inferior numerical for almost an hour of play: from then on, the Fezzanese players staged a real siege on Ciobanu’s goal, which Mr. Brisciani tried to contain by inserting Biondi in place of Bottoni.
In an attempt to win a victory that would have allowed them to cultivate their remaining playoff hopes until the end, Fezzanese launched a target shoot, in which Ciobanu’s most important save materialized in the 4th minute, when the goalkeeper born in 2005 was very good at repelling a penalty kick awarded by the referee Tanzella for a foul by Ciobanu himself against Sacchelli: Ciobanu lay down on his left side and rejected Roncarà’s shot and finished in the next rebound was also a corner kick.
In the second half, in addition to the missed penalty kick, there were at least four opportunities in the game in which Ciobanu managed to stand out, proving providential with his interventions: in the 12th minute on a cross shot by Cappelli, in the 15th minute on a shot by Sacchetti, in the 24th minute on a header by Battini and in the 49th minute on a shot by Cappelli a few seconds before the final whistle.
Understandably forced to play from a throw-in for long stretches of the match, Livorno tried to make themselves dangerous, appearing outside their own half, around the half-hour mark with a header from Savshak in the 30th minute and with a shot from outside by Pacifico, deflected by a defender: too little to worry the Fezzanese seen on the pitch today and to try to win a match, which saw Nicolae Danko Ciobanu as its absolute protagonist.
Livorno will return to the pitch at 4pm on Wednesday 1 May against Mr. Francesco Mocarelli’s Sangiovannese in a match valid as the first round of the playoffs.
Fezzanese-Livorno 0 to 0 (0 to 0)
Fezzanese (3-5-2): Mazzola A.; Vignali S., Salvetti G., Battini F.; Tetteh R., Carli L., Ferrari R., Bruni E. (36′ st Cuccio T.), Zappelli L.; Sacchelli L. (22′ st Perez Mendez), Roncarà M.. Available: Gaggini M.; Brogi A., Agotani M., Elmazi C., Ferrari G.. All.: G. Ponte.
Livorno (3-4-1-2): Ciobanu D.; Savshak I., Frroku L., Haka K.; Brisciani L., Menicagli D. (31′ st Lepri F.), Pacifico J., Tantardini A. (29′ st Mazzantini T.); Jendoubi J.; Bottoni M. (9′ st Biondi A.), Angelotti F. (36′ st Gogua N.). Available: Pucciarelli T.; Saba T., Orsini G., Arigoni G., Pavlenko E.. All.: M. Brisciani.
Referee: Giovanni Tanzella of La Spezia, assisted by Graziano Chiappini of La Spezia and Francesco Rabito of La Spezia.
Notes: Jendoubi J. sent off in the 39th minute; Ciobanu D. saved a penalty kick from Roncarà M. in the 4th minute; ammonites Jendoubi J., Bottoni M., Ciobanu D., Salvetti G. (F); corners 7-2 (2-0); rec. 2′ pt; 5′ st.
