Fight for salvation, the arrival in a draw: all the cases and the play-off hypothesis

Who knows, in the end, you won’t really play… one more game. Four days from the end of the championship, the fight for salvation is still very open. Merit of the success of Verona in the last round, but also of a calendar that includes a series of direct clashes (Lecce-Spezia above all) that could mix the cards in view of the final sprint. In the event that, after the 38th matchday, the seventeenth and eighteenth in the standings have the same number of points, their stay in Serie A would be decided with a play-off. It is one of the innovations introduced by the League for 2022-2023, with the aim of making the race for salvation more exciting.

THE GENERAL RULE

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If two teams end the season with the same booty, the regulation provides for a series of criteria aimed at establishing their respective positions in the standings. The club that has collected the most points in the head to head finishes. If the balance remains, the goal difference in the direct matches is taken into account, then the overall goal difference, finally the best attack. The last resort is represented by… drawing lots.

THE STRUGGLE SALVATION

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An exception is envisaged in the hypothesis in which the teams tied on points are at the top or third from bottom of the Serie A standings. been deemed inappropriate by the leaders of the League. For 2022-23, consequently, it was decided that, in such cases, the teams involved (first and second in the standings, or seventeenth and eighteenth) compete for the goal by playing a special play-off: 90 minutes of play, at the end of which there are no overtime, but directly the penalties. Considering Napoli’s triumph well in advance, the Scudetto play-off is an impossible scenario. The one for salvation, however…

THREE TEAMS ON EQUAL POINTS

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Nor should we underestimate the hypothesis in which, at the end of the tournament, there are three (or more) teams competing for permanence in Serie A and who have collected the same number of points. Here the aforementioned criteria would come into play (results in head-to-head matches, goal difference in head-to-head matches, general goal difference and best attack) to draw up the separate ranking of the formations concerned. Thus the seventeenth and eighteenth in the standings will be identified, who will have to participate in the play-off-salvation.