The derby between Catania and Palermo is a derby that goes beyond the category We went to the Massimino stadium in Catania to watch the match accompanied by Marco Biagianti

Derby matches are complex. They are more complex than they should be, more than the ninety minutes that serve to decide a winner and a loser, to mark out the territory and to sanction who can rejoice with their hands in the air and who can despair with their hands in their hair. This is true regardless of the city, region and category in which the game is played. Seasons pass, players, protagonists and the ambitions of the two teams on the field change, but the importance of the match, accompanied by a mystical, almost religious atmosphere, always remains the same.

And in a region like Sicily, tremendously passionate, an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea where the impetuous force of volcanoes and the calm, slow blue sea coexist, the derby is something sacred. Despite the various teams in the area, the derby of Sicily has only ever meant Catania versus Palermo and vice versa. An ancient rivalry between the two cities for territorial supremacy that has defined the history of Sicily, a continuous struggle from every possible point of view: political, social, culinary, literary, architectural before sporting. A confrontation between cities some 210 km apart but united by a constant rivalry that never ceases to exist, and which twice a year is transferred to the football pitch. Two teams that have written part of the sporting history of Sicilian football, bringing it into the limelight thanks to cult players and coaches, who have inflamed the rivalry thanks to their feats and magic and whose names are still rattled like rosaries by their respective fans. 

It was a nervous, physical game with three expulsions, two among the Rosanero and one for the hosts, in which Catania took little risk and scored the decisive two goals thanks to one of the fastest rising talents in Italian football, 20-year-old Luca Moro. His name is already in the notebooks of Serie A teams, a modern striker capable of attacking deep into the box, combining technique and physique, and he is now the tournament's top scorer with 18 goals in just 15 games. Arriving on loan from Padova almost by chance in the last days of the market under the slopes of Etna, he has proved more than fundamental for the destiny of the Rossoblu, consecrating himself in front of his public in the most important match of the season. At the end of the match, the hero of the day, in addition to the souvenir ball, also received compliments via social media from Papu Gomez, another of those Argentines who have made Catania dream for several seasons.

So that was the end of the first of two matches of the season that ideally pitted Mount Etna and the promontory of Monte Pellegrino against each other, with the 9000 Catania fans in delirium on the sidelines and those in Palermo forced to watch a stinging defeat on their televisions. Both of them will meet again in a few months' time for another chapter in a challenge that is impossible to encapsulate in 90 minutes.