A Minniti of Destiny: Pescara Silence Catania in Derby
Andrea Menniti’s second-half strike gave Delfino Pescara a 1-0 win over Catania on Sunday, extending their recent edge in a rivalry that leaves no room for tenderness.
In Italy, a derby is never merely a line in a league table. It is old loyalties summoned to account, a contest in which one clean blow can sound louder than a chorus of chances. On Sunday, 2 March, Delfino Pescara found that blow at Catania: Andrea Menniti, 17, scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory that sharpened the rivalry and left the hosts with all their effort and no reward.
The goal arrived in the 58th minute, and its author was making his first start as a striker in these reports. For Pescara, this was a day when a young player seized the solitary note that mattered. For Catania, it was betrayal by the smallest margin: not a lack of enterprise, but the punishment that follows when a derby’s decisive moment belongs to the other side.
Now Pescara have taken the latest two meetings, and this one, on Catania’s ground, makes their recent advantage sting all the more.
They had 14 shots and six on target, struck the woodwork once and won nine corners. Nicolò Bonatti, introduced in the 62nd minute, had two attempts, but the home side could not turn pressure into a goal. Their urgency was plain; the finish was not. Pescara, meanwhile, had 17 shots and seven on target, and their greater share of possession brought a stream of opportunities without another goal to show for it.
The goalkeeper made six saves, standing between Catania and the equaliser as the home side pressed for a way back. “They made us suffer,” was the sort of honest verdict a derby demands. “But we kept our nerve, and Menniti gave us the moment.”
Catania will take heart from the chances they made, but chances do not settle rivalries.