Marked for Matteo Solini
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Feb 2027
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ravenna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Matteo Solini out for 42 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ravenna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Catania waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ravenna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match30 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑4 by Arezzo, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Ravenna until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stefano Okaka, and the manager let it.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Nobody left the Ravenna dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Jan 2027
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ravenna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad25 Jan 2027
50 days out for Matteo Solini after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ravenna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market25 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.38 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lorenzo Lonardi and Ravenna agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match23 Jan 2027
Three points for Ravenna, 1‑0 the final word against Livorno in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Rodrigo Gallo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Jan 2027
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ravenna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad18 Jan 2027
58 days out for Matteo Solini after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ravenna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wadi Degla have kept their man, and Ravenna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match16 Jan 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Giacomo Poluzzi
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Ravenna
Darvin Chávez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolas Viola
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Matteo Solini out for 65 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ravenna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match11 Jan 2027
Ravenna up to position 3
38 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.25 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Ravenna
Giacomo Poluzzi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market11 Jan 2027
The name of Lorenzo Da Pozzo has come up in conversations Ravenna were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match9 Jan 2027
Late, late show earns Ravenna a point
Minute 88, against Vis Pesaro, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ravenna can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolas Viola
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad4 Jan 2027
72 days out for Matteo Solini after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ravenna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.98, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Ravenna
Philippe Poirier and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Luca Falbo is named among the best
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Ravenna will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match2 Jan 2027
Sambenedettese made Ravenna work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Matteo Motti
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan move for Ivan Smolčić is in the works
Ravenna have made the call to Como. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ravenna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Dec 2026
80 days out for Matteo Solini after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ravenna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 127% of everything Ravenna earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.86 on the card, and the Ravenna support went home talking about one name.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Giulio Donati's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Match26 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Dec 2026
Nicolas Viola damages knee ligaments — 75 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 75 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad21 Dec 2026
87 days out for Matteo Solini after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ravenna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.93, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.04 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad21 Dec 2026
500 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Match19 Dec 2026
Campobasso made Ravenna work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match21 Dec 2026
Ravenna at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 3, 33 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad21 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
Nicolas Viola damages knee ligaments — 82 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 82 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Matteo Solini breaks a bone — 94 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match14 Dec 2026
Ravenna refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 30 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Dec 2026
Late, late show earns Ravenna a point
Minute 88, against Carpi, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Ravenna
Matteo Rossetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match12 Dec 2026
Ravenna and Carpi take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joyce Anacoura, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolas Viola
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Matteo Solini breaks a bone — 101 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match5 Dec 2026
1‑4 to Ascoli, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match5 Dec 2026
The run is over for Ravenna
10 matches without defeat, and then Ascoli. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad7 Dec 2026
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Ravenna dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Darvin Chávez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolas Viola
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Nov 2026
108 days out for Matteo Solini after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ravenna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match28 Nov 2026
Whatever happens, Ravenna do not lose
10 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match28 Nov 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Looking ahead30 Nov 2026
Top-of-the-table clash for Ravenna
Ascoli next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 127% of everything Ravenna earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Ravenna
Darvin Chávez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad23 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolas Viola
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Nov 2026
115 days out for Matteo Solini after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ravenna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match21 Nov 2026
Nobody wants to play Ravenna right now
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Stefano Okaka, 37, rolls back the years — 8.13
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.13 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Giacomo Poluzzi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match21 Nov 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Ravenna. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Match21 Nov 2026
A 1‑0 win over Pontedera, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolas Viola
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Nov 2026
122 days out for Matteo Solini after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ravenna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match14 Nov 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Ravenna scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A brace, and Philippe Poirier takes the afternoon — 9.17
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Philippe Poirier provided it, and the 9.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match16 Nov 2026
Ravenna are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 25 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match14 Nov 2026
Ravenna make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Ravenna have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Stefano Okaka was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match14 Nov 2026
A 2‑1 win over Ternana, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Lorenzo Da Pozzo has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolas Viola
118 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Nov 2026
129 days out for Matteo Solini after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ravenna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.22 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match7 Nov 2026
Ravenna cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Ravenna
Giacomo Poluzzi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match7 Nov 2026
A 2‑0 win over Gubbio, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 8.23 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
The knee: Nicolas Viola out for 125 days
125 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ravenna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Matteo Solini out for 137 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ravenna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Giulio Donati, 36, rolls back the years — 7.90
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.90 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad2 Nov 2026
17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match31 Oct 2026
6 unbeaten for Ravenna
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Ravenna did not have in the autumn.
Match31 Oct 2026
Three points for Ravenna, 1‑0 the final word against Bra in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 127% of everything Ravenna earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad2 Nov 2026
8 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Giacomo Poluzzi has given nobody the chance.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Paolo Rrapaj
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The dugout
Stefano Okaka does not fit this one
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match23 Sep 2026
The cup run ends for Ravenna
1‑2 against Giugliano, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.18, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Ravenna
Stefano Okaka and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ravenna rescue it on 95 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 95. Livorno had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Cristiano Bani did the work nobody counts — 6.87
9 combined actions and 6.87. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Livorno leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Alessio Barbieri chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Ravenna
Daniele Casiraghi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Stefano Okaka
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Alessio Barbieri to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 10. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Fouls conceded: 5. Some of it was commitment and some of it was frustration, and the free-kick count did not distinguish between the two.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cristiano Bani and Ravenna agree another 4 years.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for Ravenna, 1‑0 the final word against Pineto in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Alessio Barbieri on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Matteo Solini has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Ravenna that is a harder question to answer.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Lorenzo Lonardi wants a proper job in this side
Shifted about, taken off before the hour, asked to do somebody else's running — Lorenzo Lonardi has had enough of being useful and would like to be picked. Ravenna know, and have known for weeks.