PAOLO THE BEST, ALL BAR NONE

Harrow Satellite – London, England – Saturday 17th February — report by Victor Jones…. better late than never!!

Paolo Barone took advantage of a visit to London, to win his first ever FISTF Satellite event.

At the home of his current team, Harrow Hawks, the Italian beat Panos Stemitsiotis 1-0 in the final to seal the honours, before his return to his current residence in Rome.

Barone scored the vital goal in the first half of an evenly matched conclusion. In an attack down the left-hand side, a block flick fell short, and Barone gave his opponent no chance with a chip shot which went in off the underside of the crossbar.

And though Stemitsiotis created several chances to equalise, Barone held on for his maiden FISTF success.

In an event dominated by the host club, all four semi-finalists were Harrow players, and that excluded the two Hawks who were finalists at the club’s last Satellite tournament.

Stemitsiotis – a late entry to the competition – had looked strong from the start, thrashing holder Rudi Peterschinigg 5-1 in the group stage, and then dispatching Victor Jones – runner-up in the last edition – 2-0 in the quarter-finals.

A dominant first half display helped him to a 3-0 lead against Paul Andreas in the semis. And whilst Andreas had the better of the second half, the Cypriot player could only manage a single consolation goal.

Barone’s path to the final was equally as tough.

Drawn in the same group as Andreas, a 1-0 defeat consigned him to second place, and a quarter-final against Martin Hodds.

Barone edged through, via a shoot-out as nervy as the 40 goalless minutes that preceded it, before another added time victory in the semis, this time thanks to an overtime goal against Marco Ghigliotti.

Peterschinigg meanwhile relinquished his title after a 2-1 sudden death defeat to Ghigliotti at the quarter-final stage.

– The plate again saw close games as Terry Arnold beat Matteo Lulli 3-2 to reach the final. In the other semi, Kye Arnold couldn’t get past veteran Dave Croucher to make it an all-Kent final with the Worthing player winning on shots after a 2-2 draw. In the end, Arnold won the final with a 1-0 victory in a tight game.

Results

Quarter-finals

Panos Stemitsiotis (HAR/ENG) 2-0 Victor Jones (HAR/ENG)

Brandon Lavender (KIV/ENG) 0-1 Paul Andreas (HAR/CYP)

Marco Ghigliotti (HAR/ENG) 2-1 Rudi Peterschinigg (HAR/ENG) (OT)

Paolo Barone (HAR/ITA) 0-0 Martin Hodds (DUN/ENG) (OT; 2-1 shots)

Semi-finals

Panos Stemitsiotis 3-1 Paul Andreas

Marco Ghigliotti 1-2 Paolo Barone (OT)

Final

Panos Stemitsiotis 0-1 Paolo Barone