Serie B 2014/15 – Week 31: Spezia 3-0 Livorno: Aquilotti soar into the playoff picture

Date: 14th March 2015 at 5:28am
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Spezia smashed Livorno 3-0 at the Stadio Alberto Picco on Friday night kicking off week 31 in Serie B action and catapulting themselves into a heated battle for a playoff slot.

The floodgates opened in the second half when Niccolò Giannetti drew first blood before Andrea Catellani pounced on a loose ball in the box for his tenth of the season and Mario Situm closed it out in fine fashion with a delicately placed shot to hand Livorno a crushing defeat.

Livorno president Aldo Spinelli had asked his players to lead the Amaranto back to Serie A by reeling off 10 straight victories to close out the season but coach Ezio Gelain’s men were unable to offer any resistance in a critical 15-minute spell where Croatian sensation Sitium ran roughshod over a stunned defense.

Both sides played cautiously in the first half and barely troubled the opposing keeper. The home side had the most interesting moments of the first half. At the half hour mark, a header from Giannetti forced Livorno’s Luca Mazzoni to tip the effort over the crossbar and minutes later shouts for a penalty were waived off when Catellani fell in the area.

Spezia seized the match early on in the first half when Livorno’s Rodney Strasser mishandled an easy pass just outside his area and Mario Situm pounced on the mistake, drove a hard low shot which Mazzoni could only parry straight to the oncoming path of Giannetti who didn’t miss at his second bite of the cherry.

Situm was again the catalyst a few minutes later when he backed Livorno’s Marco Moscati to the goal line, drove a cross in from the left and the ball fell to Catellani who scored his 10th of the season to leave the Amaranto in stunned silence.

The young Croatian on loan from Dinamo Zagreb saved the best for the last as he drove the final nail in Livorno’s coffin just after the 20 minute mark. A sleepy Livorno defense failed to close down Situm as he ran at the defenders and simply passed the ball inside Mazzoni’s far post to launch Spezia into seventh place, a single point behind Livorno and only three points adrift of third place Avellino.

See the Serie B standings here.

 

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