Narrow defeat for Primavera team in playoff quarterfinals

Bitter ending for SPAL Primavera in the match against Ascoli, valid for the playoff quarterfinals that will determine the third and final team promoted to the next Primavera 1 Championship. Coach Vito Grieco's biancazzurri were defeated 2-1 by the hosts, who thus detached the pass for the semifinals, thanks to a goal scored in full recovery by bianconero forward Gennari.

After an initial phase of study, it was the spallina formation that took the game into its own hands, creating more than one chance at goal: the first with Boccia on the quarter hour mark whose shot from inside the area ends high by a little after the deflection of an Ascoli defender, while on the 20th minute it was Puletto's free kick from a deflected position that forced the opponent's goalkeeper Raffaelli to take refuge in a corner kick.

SPAL upped the pace considerably and in the 22nd minute it was again a free kick by Puletto that created headaches for the bianconera defense, but Svoboda's shot from the edge of the small area ended just wide; two minutes later, however, it was Boccia who tried a left-footed shot that went wide of the goal defended by Raffaelli.

In the second half, the script does not change and it is always SPAL that controls the game, touching the net twice in the first minutes on as many free kicks. In the 51st minute, a free kick by Puletto from the left vertex of the penalty area hit the post, while two minutes later it was Contiliano who took charge of the free kick with the bianconero goalkeeper managing to remove the ball from the low corner to his right.

In the 64th minute, Puletto tried to surprise Raffaelli directly from a corner kick, but the bianconero number one overcame himself and answered both on the attempt of the ten spallino and on the subsequent sure-footed conclusion from inside the box by Boccia.

Three minutes later the episode that unblocked the match, with Puletto taking advantage of an Ascoli error in the setting phase, leaving on the left flank, entering the box and there being stopped irregularly by an opponent. For the match director there is no doubt, it is a penalty kick. On the penalty spot goes the same ten biancazzurri who scores 0-1.

The spallino goal shakes Ascoli, which returns to show itself in Abati's sides first with Cozzoli's shot from outside and then with Sasanelli's turn from inside the penalty area that the biancazzurro number one deflects into the corner with a great intervention.

A little more than ten minutes from the 90th minute, the hosts found the equalizer with Franzolini who, at the end of a back-and-forth in the box, let off a shot that slotted behind Abati, while in the 93rd minute the cold shower arrived for coach Grieco's team with the header of newcomer Gennari that slotted near the crossbar of the posts for the final 2-1.

This is the match scoreboard:

Ascoli - SPAL  2-1

Scorers: 67' pen. Puletto (S), 79' Franzolini (A), 93' Gennari (A)

Ascoli: Raffaelli, Camillonni (77' Del Moro), Cozzoli, Carano (74' Maiga Silvestri), Caravillani, Rossi, Palazzino, Franzolini, Sasanelli (77' Gennari), Ceccarelli (77' Ciccanti), Cosimi. Substitutes: Mengucci, Regnicoli, Bando, Caucci, Piermarini, Meneschincheri, Coticoni, Graziano. Coach Nosdeo

SPAL: Abati, Bura (94' Franzoni), Saiani, Bonadiman (90' Gobbo), Contiliano, Svoboda (94'Carrozzo), Bugaj, Parravicini, Angeletti, Puletto (90' Semenza), Boccia (83' Marcolini). Substitutes: Martelli, Cavallini, Verza, Vesprini, Meneghini, Carbone, Imputato. Coach Grieco

Referee: Valerio Pezzopane from L'Aquila (Masciale from Molfetta - De Chirico from Molfetta)

Notes: yellow cards for Palazzino, Carano, Caravillani (A).