A victory and two draws in the last three rounds for Messina against a defeat, a draw and a victory for Reggina. The ranking reads 8 points for the Calabrians, while -5 for the Sicilians who, without penalty, would also have one point more than their rivals across the Strait and big favorites in the southern group. The numbers, however, count for little in derbys like the one between the Giallorossi and Amaranth, again against the “Franco Scoglio” after nine years: «These are matches that prepare themselves. The fans made us understand how important it is and we will give our best. We are aware that we are facing an opponent with a very strong team, but we also know that we can play against everyone”, declared, via the official channels of the Peloritan club, the midfielder Alessio Aprile, who scored in the last match in Enna and is also hunting for a goal at home, where Messina is chasing their first success: “Points are fundamental for us. We are still at -5 and we always sweat our shirt and give our all in training and matches to win. The penalty pushes us to always give something more.”
From a ranking perspective, however, the draws in the last two matches against Enna, achieved in any case in a comeback, weigh heavily, but above all the one at home against Paternò: «We should have done and achieved more. It was a very hard-fought match in Enna, but in the end the draw was fair. Both we and they had chances, but we were unlucky on the penalty, with another handball in the area. Then we did well to regain the result with a great goal from Tesija.”
A positive reaction, which satisfied Aprile and his teammates and also coach Pippo Romano: «Happy with the performance against an aggressive team that wanted to get a result at home. We prepared the match well and we are satisfied with the point. In fact, when I arrived in Messina I didn’t think I would reduce the penalty so quickly – explained the midfielder -. We started with a draw (against Athletic Palermo) after just one week of training and I immediately saw a great group. We played good games, but there is still a long way to go. We miss the victory at home, but only six days have passed and we will do it again on Sunday. We are a fantastic group, we train well during the week, despite the difficulties.” The objective is to reverse the home trend and the match against Reggina will give an extra boost, also for the fans who, 200 of them, were present at the “Gaeta”: «We didn’t expect so many fans, they surprised us and gave us an extra boost. It’s always exciting. The priority is to score points and cancel the penalty.”
