The last match of the regular season, Taranto-Messina is certainly a real challenge both for the Sicilians’ need to win and avoid the playout lottery, after a sensational run-up that brought 30 points in the standings in the second round, and for the possibility the home team to join the queue post-season but in the certainly more exciting playoffs, an unexpected result for the fluctuating championship of the Apulians who however still find themselves there to play for it.
Adding even more spice to the match were the extra motivations that the former Giallorossi coach Ezio Capuano, now on the rossoblù bench, addressed to the home fans, asking them for a truce from his protest towards the club in this particular football moment. In fact, however, the coach’s words will not be implemented with the Ionian curve which, through a press release and eloquent banners posted before the match, reiterates its line of conduct and the consequent desertion even in this rough match and in any case felt for both the curve components .
During the week, as often happens now, the reservations on the presence of the Giallorossi supporters were dissolved only a few hours before the match due to a series of dangerous crossings along the way, above all the one offered by the Aversa-Catania match which was later forbidden to Etna players. also due to the transfer of Catanzaro fans to Potenza. Sicilian-Calabrian crossings all bearers of important rivalries.
We therefore pass, in this period of time, from a possible generalized ban to rumors of a “loyalty” trip up to finally arriving on Friday afternoon, when the tickets for the guest sector of the Iacovone.
Uncertainty and timing that don’t actually help and don’t allow you to always organize trips in the best possible way. In the end, the Messinesi present will be almost three hundred and a part of them (the big group of the hard core) enters once the game has begun, also due to the meticulous searches that took place just before entering the city.
Home curve absent, as already anticipated, and support from Messina which remains constant and powerful for the entire duration of the match, even when Holly Kral devours the penalty that could lead to direct salvation.
The guys from the Messina curve don’t sing any chorus against their Taranto rivals, as it should be, given their absence from the stands, also recalling those who – arbitrarily – had undertaken unwanted initiatives in this sense.
Nothing to report in terms of public order.
The match ends goalless despite Taranto certainly deserved the three points. A result that no one needs since the rossoblù will not participate in the playoffs and Messina and its fans will still have to fight to earn that salvation that the Giallorossi ultras have repeatedly not only asked for but literally demanded from the team during the match
Paolo Furrer