The regulation does not provide for extra time or penalties. Today the prospect is to cross paths with Milan Futuro. Saturday 10 and 17 May are the dates of the playouts. In the event of a tie, the best placed team is saved

With four days to go in the regular season, Spal finds itself in fourth-last position with a very high probability of having to play for salvation in the playouts. In this regard, yesterday Lega Pro announced the dates of the double challenge: Saturday 10 May the first leg and Saturday 17 May the return leg. The times are still being defined: last season the games were played at 18. The rules are quite simple: the playouts involve four teams for each group, those classified from fifth to last place.

The sixteenth in the class meets the nineteenth, while the seventeenth faces the eighteenth in a two-way match, with the second match on the field of the better-ranked team. The loser is relegated to the amateurs, the winner remains in Serie C.

In the event of a draw after 180 minutes, the team with the best position in the standings at the end of the regular season will be saved. There will be no extra time or penalty kicks. It is therefore clear how important it is to at least maintain seventeenth place, which would allow Antenucci and his teammates to play the return match at the Mazza stadium but above all to be able to save themselves even through two draws. Even if the prospect of coming across a loose cannon like Milan Futuro is quite worrying.

As is known, the playouts could theoretically not even be played.

If the fifth-last team in the standings were to trail the second-last team by at least nine points, the latter would be directly relegated to Serie D, as would the third-last team if it were preceded by the fourth-last team by more than eight points. This was what Baldini's team was aiming for before the direct clash with Legnago Salus.

The draw against the last in the class has reduced this hope to a minimum, indeed Spal must be very careful not to get sucked in because the last place is only four points away. Finally, it is important to underline that unlike what happens during the championship, in the playouts - and of course also in the playoffs - the Var will be used.

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