Salento 2, Pescara 1: Furnari Turns the Derby in the 72nd Minute

Seventy-two minutes gone, the Via del Mare a wall of sound, and Mattia Furnari takes one touch to settle the ball and another to send it past Gracjan Sobolewski. The south erupts. Salento lead 2-1, and the derby tilts for good.

It had begun as a betrayal. Four minutes in, Tommaso Luciani, Pescara's No 10, struck for the visitors and silenced the ground. Pescara, with only 36% of the ball, kept carving the cleaner chances — two clear-cut, a shot against the woodwork, Jorge Calvo pulling the strings with five key passes. Destiny, for a while, wore blue.

Then Stanislas Pemi Moumbagna, on loan from S. Gijón, answered on 18 minutes with the equaliser, and the night changed hands. He was the best of them: a goal, two key passes, four dribbles. Riccardo Quitadamo drove at Pescara until he was replaced on 79. Raúl Losada set up Furnari's decisive blow.

Salento lost Alfonso Verduci to injury on 26 minutes, Edoardo Ferrari stepping into the centre of defence and holding firm. Pescara's bench stirred — Marius Labukas came on at 66 — but the goals would not come again.

There is a wound in this for Fiorenzo Ricca, who wore Salento's shirt from 2056/57 to 2058/59, 77 games, five goals, a trophy, and who left the field on 66 minutes with the derby slipping away. Johan Verhage, another former Salento man, watched from the Pescara side.

Recent history had favoured Pescara: three of the last four meetings, including a 1-0 here in 2060. The pendulum swings back. Salento have their night; Pescara leave with nothing but the memory of four good minutes.