Serie A Gold: Sidea Group Fasano is Italian champion | Fifth championship for the white and blues

Sidea Group Fasano is Italian champion. The Apulian club won the fifth Scudetto in its history this evening (Monday) – after those of 2014, 2016, 2018 and last year – by beating Brixen 28-25 in game 3 of the final. In front of 2 thousand spectators, in the Fasano sports hall, the team led by Vito Fovio confirms the tricolor won last year. It is Puglia’s 15th Italian handball title.

The Fasano and national movement all happens on a particular evening. In fact, the blue and white captain Flavio Messina and the right winger from Brixen – with a long militancy in blue – Martin Sonnerer, the latter awarded MVP of the series for the South Tyroleans, leave the handball game. Messina ends his career on the field with nine trophies between the championship, Italian Cup and Super Cup: all those won by the Junior team from 2014 to today. Filippo Angiolini also said goodbye: the Tuscan full-back leaves Fsano, where he arrived at 16, as MVP of the final and with eight goals on the scoresheet.

THE MATCH. Brixen still without Canete injured. Fasano loses Notarangelo and Corcione. Energy: few. Emotions: many. The first roar was for the 1-0 goal scored by Angiolini after just a minute. Fasano started better, supported by the home crowd and clinging to the saves of Alessandro Leban, protagonist of the start of the white-blue match. The Junior runs away and in the 10th minute is ahead 7-3. In the quarter of an hour Niederwieser changes his team’s defensive approach and makes it 5-1. Fasano’s offensive effectiveness drops and Bressanone, who knows how to be dangerous when it can run, takes advantage of it. Break of 3-0 in the match which returns to balance at 9-8 by Vinicius De Oliveira. Two rings from Pugliese bring the score back to 11-8. The +3 still divides the two teams at the break. Fasano at the break with 15-12 in their favor.

The gap remained unchanged even at the start of the second half, with the trend not changing until 19-15, reiterated and improving until 21-16. The stopwatch says 41′ overall. There is room for another attack by the South Tyroleans. Another partial for Sonnerer’s 21-18, the best in shooting among him with seven goals. The last point of contact in the 48th minute, when Azzolin, taking advantage of another empty pass from the Apulians, scores the ball to make it 22-21. But Fasano made the decisive move with a 3-0 run: an escape from Angiolini ended in 27-23 after 56′. The 2,200 in the stands get fired up. It’s a festive atmosphere. It ends 28-25. Sidea Group Fasano is still Italian champion.

Vito Foviotechnician of Sidea Group Fasano: “Winning in front of all these people is fantastic. We managed a sporting miracle, with excellent work by the club and thanks to these fantastic guys. With a reduced staff, practically eight, we managed to beat much more complete teams. But we Fasano people are like this: the more difficult it is, the more we like it. I’m very happy because today we celebrate the captain: the Messina era ends, after so many trophies, and we hope that the future can be equally successful. And then we say goodbye to Angiolini who leaves us after so many years; I feel like a younger brother and I’m very happy for the play-offs and in general for the extraordinary season that he played.”

(photo: Di Biase | Caputo)