Women's League in Italy

Discussion in 'Women's International' started by bzygo, Aug 23, 2008.

  1. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    This last match-day of the 1st leg of the regular season clearly favours Roma and Juventus, since no-one of the other top-teams managed to make 3 points and Milan in particular should be happy that Sampdoria can't seem to move from 10 points, because their 5th position looks more and more shaky. On the other hand, many bottom-teams manage to make points today and Sassuolo in particular have their first win of the season. But let's see in details how this mid-season picture came to be. :coffee:

    Sassuolo-Pomigliano was an hard-fought match, that, despite a quite clear dominance by the home team, could have easily ended either way. The neroverdi have to thank young GK Lia Lonni (22 yo, she replaced injured Isabella Kresche in 1st Half) and Maria Luisa Filangeri who, after two very forgottable games with National Team (who even raised legitimate doubts about her selection :cautious:), answered with a very good performance today, saving one goal on the goal-line (a good header from CK-action by Pomigliano's Brazilian star Taty Sena) and going close to scoring herself from an header that was well saved by Sara Cetinja. The headers were the leitmotiv of the game, since Sassuolo scored this way with two FWs who had quite disappointed so far, Bulgarian Evdokija Popadinova in 1st Half and Scot veteran Lena Clelland, who replaced Popadinova in 2nd Half.
    Check out two numbers: - Pomigliano's goal by Valentina Gallazzi, that was basically a repeat of the wonderful volley she had scored last week with U-23 Italy vs Portugal; time to try her in Senior National Team also? :coffee: - The quality of the assists for Sassuolo's goals, coming from Valeria Monterubbiano and from Benedetta Orsi, who was back today from a season-long injury. The fact that Sassuolo recently got back some longtime injured players as Orsi or Martina Tomaselli (who already scored twice since her comeback), who most probably weren't signed elsewhere despite their quality just because they were injured, could be the turning point of the season for the team. With this first win, anyway, Sassuolo already leaves last place and climb up at 8th-place, passing both Parma and Como (this last one just on goal difference). Pomigliano remain one single point ahead of them, but they have to be careful: it looks like this season, with a 10 teams' league, the competition to avoid relegation will be a fight to the bitter end. :ninja:

    Unreal match in Milan, where the home-team was ahead by two goal twice, but was anyway catched on a 3-3 final result: they even hit a post with Linda Tucceri Cimini in 1st Half, after they had gone ahead by 2-0 with a brace by Lindsey Thomas; but it was even worse for Tucceri Cimini when in 2nd Half, after Milan had gone on 3-1 (the uncommon scorer being veteran DF Laura Fusetti, with a header from Corner Kick action), she asked Kosovare Asllani to let her take the PK she had won with an attempted assist to her that had been stopped by a handball: and she missed it! :x3: This led to the incredible comeback by Como, that was concluded by a PK at 90+3' that was initially saved by Laura Giuliani but was anyway smashed in by the penalty taker, captain Giulia Rizzon. Once again, Como have to thank their U-19 darlings: Matilde Pavan, who assisted Julia Karlenäs' goal in 1st Half, and little goal-machine Chiara Beccari, who made it 3-2 in 2nd Half just after the PK missed by Milan, thus giving a lifeline to her team until the last minutes.
    Milan's season is a failure so far: the top-teams drift way ahead of them and the 5th-place could very well be in danger. The win vs Juventus from two match-days ago was the only high of a nightmarish 1st leg. Como, instead, manage to salvage one point and, despite being one-to-last, are more alive and kicking than ever. :ninja:

    Finally, a 0-0 draw between Fiorentina and Inter. Some woodwork hit by both teams (Inter more convincing in 1st Half, Fiorentina in the 2nd), but basically the game was nothing to write home about and both teams were deservingly leapfrogged in the rankings by Juventus, who moved in at 2nd place. It is confirmed that Inter is strictly Tabitha Chawinga-dependent: she's injured by two games and Inter's offense-line, who was previously the more prolific of the league, suddenly flops and only produces one goal in two matches (a loss and a draw): Rita Guarino sure have to pray that the Malawian star gets back soon! :x3:

    Recap:
    Sassuolo 2-1 Pomigliano
    Milan
    3-3 Como
    Fiorentina
    0-0 Inter

    The rankings (with goal difference in brackets):
    Roma 24 (+14)
    Juventus 20 (+16)
    Fiorentina 19 (+5)
    Inter 18 (+15)
    Milan 13 (-1)
    Sampdoria 10 (-7)
    Pomigliano 7 (-10)
    Sassuolo 6 (-6)
    Como 6 (-8)
    Parma 4 (-18)

    The highlights:



     
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  2. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Roma-Wolfsburg going to start in about 20 minutes: both teams at 6 points with the others in the group at 0, so Roma have basically nothing to lose. Let's see what kind of a game they'll manage to play against one of the top women's team in Europe :coffee::

     
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  3. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    The mid-week UEFA WCL games basically went ok: both Roma and Juventus had 1-1 home draw vs arguably the best team of their respective groups, both after going ahead first with excellent goals by their strikers (Roma at 3' with Valentina Giacinti, Juventus at 52' with Lineth Beerensteyn).

    Of course the situation is different for each team: Roma keep Wolfsburg's pace and share the first place of the group with 7 points; basically advancing to the quarter-finals looks comfortably at hand and it's a question of deciding the first place in the group (Wolfsburg are currently ahead by goal difference and it sure won't be easy to win next game in Germany); Juventus are 2nd-place at 5 points, one measly point ahead of OL, but having just posted a 1-1 draw vs Arsenal at home, instead of losing by 1-5 as OL, could end making the difference: it's anyway likely that this group will be decided by the OL-Juventus direct clash in Lyon.

    I commented the single games on the UEFA WCL 2022-2023 thread, so I won't repeat here. It's anyway a fact that both Italian teams showed once again that they compete at this level, since the draws were well-deserved and winning the games vs two top-level teams as Wolfsburg and Arsenal didn't seem out of their reach (actually each game could have gone either way and an Italian win could have been very possible). Of course, Arsenal had a lot of key-players injured, but on the other hand they have such a depth that it doesn't like like it hurted them too much. :coffee:

    Here are the highlights of the games (Italian version):


     
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  4. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Back to the league: two matches today.

    In the first one, Roma dispatched Pomigliano by 2-0 (the same score as the away game that had been played in the 1st leg, since today the 2nd leg of the regular season was starting), but it wasn't as easy as the final result could suggest: for one thing, Roma only scored the 2nd goal at 90'+3', with Valentina Giacinti (she's once again on the scoresheet, although in this case all of the work was done by the Norwegian duo of Emilie Haavi and Sophie Román Haug and she only had to push the ball beyond the goal-line); secondarily, Pomigliano's GK Sara Cetinja was once more outstanding, saving all that was humanly savable from her goal and only having to bow to Annamaria Serturini's rocket at the end of 1st Half and to Giacinti's finisher; finally, on a 1-0 score Pomigliano had a royal chance to equalize with Verena Amorim, but Camelia Ceasar (who had been rested in the last two games for a little injury) made a veritable miracle and avoided an 1-1 that, with just 15' to go, would have been complicated to break again.
    Roma (who were sporting some fancy new kits :p) passed another test of maturity, showing that it was not a case that they were Winter's Champions (the virtual title going to the winner of the 1st leg of the league). Pomigliano had a decent game: it wasn't against Roma that they had to find the points to avoid relegation. :coffee:

    In the second of today's matches, Milan took their revenge on Fiorentina and even raised one up: in the first match-day of the league, at the end of August, Milan had suffered an unexpected 1-3 home loss from them; now, in the first match of the 2nd leg, they go in Firenze and win by 1-6! :x3:
    The match was of course one-way traffic, with Martina Piemonte scoring a brace, Lindsay Thomas scoring a brace too, and forcing an own goal to boot, and a final goal that will tickle the fancy of stats-gurus: how often does it happen that a player is assisted in scoring by her twin sister? :geek: That's what happened to Michaela Dubcová, who settled the score at 90', from a cross by her more renowned sister Kamila Dubcová.
    Milan remain behind in the rankings, because they keep switching between spectacular wins like this one of the one vs Juventus and disappointing losses like the one in the derby or the one vs Pomigliano from two weeks ago.
    Meanwhile, Fiorentina's 3rd-place look very shaky: Patrizia Panico's side, in the first part of the season, had looked like a contender for the top positions, but frankly it doesn't look like a Champions' League qualifying spot is in their reach and I totally expect them to lose their position to Inter after Parma-inter, that's scheduled on Monday.

    Recap:
    Roma 2-0 Pomigliano
    Fiorentina
    1-6 Milan

    And highlights:


     
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  5. Lohmann

    Lohmann Member+

    Arminia Bielefeld
    Germany
    Feb 24, 2020
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    In Germany it`s autumn.:)
     
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  6. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Here they call it Winter's Champion anyway. :p
     
  7. Lohmann

    Lohmann Member+

    Arminia Bielefeld
    Germany
    Feb 24, 2020
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    Here we call it Herbstmeister (Autumn Champion) even when we know them in February like this season (if Wolfsburg doesn`t win it earlier).
     
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  8. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Two other games today (unusually, the match-day will extend until tomorrow, when Parma-Inter is scheduled).

    2nd consecutive win for Sassuolo, after not having had any in the fist 8 match-days; Sampdoria are basically following the exact opposite path, since they have only made 1 point (at home vs last-placed Parma) in the latest 7 match-days, and it's now that single point keeping them ahead of Sassuolo in the rankings.
    It's true that Sampdoria, today, had both their main strikers, Kelly Gago and Stefania Tarenzi, out for injury, but it's a fact that Genoa's team is in a deep crisis and the brilliant displays shown in the first three match-days of the league are by now a long-forgotten memory. Sassuolo, instead, are finding ther pace (along with some injured or previously out of form players who are now delivering): beyond the final score, it's the performance that's the most reassuring fact, with some names to remember who did particularly well: Eleonora Goldoni, who scored the first goal and assisted Valeria Monterubbiano for the second one; young 22 yo GK Nicole Lauria, who did equally well as her same-aged colleague Lia Lonni had done on the previous game (Austrian Isabella Kresche's injury could have been a blessing in disguise, since she had mostly looked like a weak link of Sassuolo's defense so far), and when she couldn't save, it was South-African MF Refiloe Jane who did on the goal-line (in addition to being everywhere on the pitch).
    The title pool and the relegation pool look anyway quite defined right now (a 6 point gap separates the last one of the former, Milan, and the first one of the latter, Sampdoria) and both Sampdoria and Sassuolo should remain part of the bottom half, although in the top positions of it. :coffee:

    It's quite clear by now that, since the new formula of the league doesn't require to win the regular season to fight for the title, Juventus are gambling by concentrating their declining energies on the Women's Champions' League's group stage and by resting a lot of players in the league games vs bottom-of-the-rankings' opponents. They already had only won in additional time last week vs Parma: this week the trick doesn't work and a top-form Como forces another away draw after the one vs Milan from last week, lifting themselves at 7 points, level with Pomigliano.
    The Center-Back position keeps being a problem for Juventus this season and today both CBs were quite questionable: Martina Rosucci, who had looked quite good (but anyway not perfect) as a MF recycled to DF vs Arsenal, appeared today to often lose her mark, in particular in the action of the 2nd goal, while Linda Sembrant caused a PK (that, luckily for Juve, was saved by Pauline Peyraud-Magnin; 2nd consecutive mistake from the penalty spot for Como's captain Giulia Rizzon, who this time didn't get the chance to slam the rebound in) and looked generally insecure. Juventus keep their 2nd place (since Fiorentina have lost yesterday), but they could have to share it with Inter by tomorrow, while Roma are now leading 6 points ahead of them.
    It's quite ironic that Como mostly have to thank two youngsters on loan from Juventus for their result: GK Beatrice Beretta and FW Chiara Beccari, who equalized Juventus' early advantage (Juventus had scored in 1st Half with young Canadian Julia Grosso, at her first goal in this season). Como's market wager of putting their hands on the best talents of our U-19 National Team is apparently paying in gold at the moment. :)

    The matches:
    Sampdoria 0-2 Sassuolo
    Juventus
    1-1 Como

    The highlights:


     
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  9. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    ...and the final match of this match-day is a draw that leaves both contenders unsatisfied. Parma-Inter ends on a 2-2 draw, thus Parma can't catch up with the Como/Pomigliano duo and remain last-placed in the rankings, while Inter miss the chance of sitting at 2nd place level with Juventus; they remain 3rd-placed instead, along with Fiorentina.
    New coach Domenico Panico sure managed to improve Parma's game-plan, but they anyway took two goals in the last part of the match after going ahead in 1st Half, as they had done last week vs Juventus: this time, at least, they had took a 2-0 advantage (with excellent Melania Martinovic, once again like last week, and with Marja Banusic in 2nd Half, at her first goal in this season, assisted by Martinovic herself), so they managed to salvage at least one point (and it's always good, for teams that are trying to avoid relegation, to make some points against big teams, because not all of their rivals will manage to do that).
    Inter, on the other hand, looked uninspired for most of the game and made things easier for Parma with defensive blunders (looking at you, Mana Mihashi :cautious:). At least Stefanie van der Gragt once again showcased her powerful header (she already scored 3 goals this way and, by this point of view, she's sure become an important weapon for Inter). Then, when Rita Guarino decided to give some minutes of playing time to Tabitha Chawinga despite the fact that she was back from an injury, it was clear that Inter, this year, is all about the Malawian striker, since she almost immediately equalized (reaching the first-place in the top-scorers' rankings in the process, along with Cristiana Girelli and team-mate Elisa Polii): the good news are that she's back, the bad news are that apparently Inter is nothing withour her. :coffee:

    The match of today:
    Parma 2-2 Inter

    New rankings (goal difference in brackets):
    Roma 27 (+16)
    Juventus 21 (+16)
    Inter 19 (+15)
    Fiorentina 19 (0)
    Milan 16 (+4)
    Sampdoria 10 (-9)
    Sassuolo 9 (-4)
    Como 7 (-8)
    Pomigliano 7 (-12)
    Parma 5 (-18)

    highlights of the match:

     
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  10. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    2nd match-day of the 2nd leg of the league started today under a pouring rain in most of the country. :barefoot:

    Actually in Palma Campania, where Pomigliano-Sampdoria was played, there was a short break of clear weather. Sampdoria, with her main strikers out injured couldn't frame many shots in the opposite goal and it was mainly Pomigliano making the game instead. They only managed to score through a late PK, though, that was both won and taken by Veronica Battelani, who had passed from Sampdoria to Pomigliano in this summer market-window. GK Amanda Tampieri wasn't so far from saving the shot, but in the end she couldn't, and Sampdoria were caught at 6th place by Pomigliano. The two clubs are taking opposite paths these days: Sampdoria just made 1 point in the last 8 match-days and of course by now they were sucked in the relegation battle; Pomigliano instead, since the change at the helm (with the duo of Gerardo Alfano and Carlo Sanchez replacing Nicola Romaniello at the 7th match-day) have made 9 points in the last 5 match-days (with three wins, including a sensational one vs Milan). We're going to see how it will end for both teams. :coffee:

    Muddy weather in Milan instead, but, despite the conditions of the pitch, Inter and Juventus played a really entertaining match, with a lot of chances and both teams hitting the woodwork multiple times. In the end, it was Juventus' experience emerging the winner, with a lethal one-two punch of two goals within three minutes at the beginning of 2nd Half: Barbara Bonansea (assisted by Cristiana Girelli) once again showed that the veterans are still needed; then Arianna Caruso filed away the match.
    Actually, Inter (who had played Tabitha Chawinga, back from an injury, in 2nd half only) had a chance to re-open the game late in 2nd Half, but Ajara Njoya deflected from an off-side position a Chawinga's shot that would have much probably gone in anyway. :x3: In Juventus, a special mention for Julia Grosso, who's shooting a lot in the latest games and is actually slinging some very good efforts, but she seldom manages to actually find the goal (she only did last week vs Como): today she had at least three good chances in 1st Half, but she always found an excellent Francesca Durante saying no to her shots.
    Juventus try to close the gap with Roma and lift themselves three points behind them while waiting for Milan-Roma tomorrow. Inter remain stuck at 19 points (8 from the top right now, that could even become more) and they could easy lose 3rd place to Fiorentina and/or be caught by Milan.

    The matches:
    Pomigliano 1-0 Sampdoria
    Inter
    0-2 Juventus

    Highlights of the matches:


     
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  11. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Today's matches weren't much surprising, although they were in general hard-fought.

    Emilia's derby of Sassuolo-Parma ends in a 2-2 draw that doesn't completely satisfy any of the two teams: it's anyway a way better result for Sassuolo, who complete a 5-games unbeaten streak and catch up with Sampdoria and Pomigliano at 10 points, than it is for Parma, who remain last-placed one point behind Como and who once again see a win disappear in the final minutes of a game.
    There are some exciting offensive players finally "clicking" for both teams and at least 3 out of the 4 goals were very good: check out in particular Melania Martinovic's spectacular bicycle-kick. It's the third consecutive goal for Martinovic. Two other players in this game had their second consecutive goal: Marija Banusic (with the involuntary help of Sassuolo's young GK Nicole Lauria) and Eleonora Goldoni, who equalized at 90'+4', once again with an header, after the one that had opened the score last week vs Sampdoria. The first goal of the match, by Lana Clelland, wasn't a repeat, but was anyway worth watching, if anything for Giada Pondini's heel-assist. :thumbsup:

    Roma look really unbeatable this season and it's kind of a shame for them that the new formula consists of a regular season followed by a title pool, because with just a regular season like in previous years they could have probably killed the run for the title pretty early: anyway, with their 8th consecutive win, they keep a 6 points advantage over Juventus, while they post another clean sheet in the process; their offensive power is great, but their defense is even unbelievable: they only took 3 goals in 11 match-days so far! :eek: Adding Carina Wenninger and Moeka Minami, in this summer's market-campaign, to their good mix of veterans, as Elena Linari and Elisa Bartoli, obviously paid in gold.
    Today, the unexpected game-winner was Manuela Giuliano with a brace (not that she didn't score her share of goals, lately, but she's anyway not exactly a striker and, despite her diminutive height, she even scored with an header today!), but it's Roma's wingers who are the real deal: check out the crosses from Annamaria Serturini and Emilie Haavi. The Norwegian star in particular was once again basically un-markable and poor Guðný Árnadóttir, who tried to stop her, has sure finished the game with a serious headache.
    A Roma in this good state of form can even hope to make a good result in Wolfsburg on Thursday. :ninja:

    Finally, Fiorentina manage to beat Como and to lift themselves at 3rd-place alone, leaving Inter behind. They scored the opener after just 20" seconds with Zsanett Kaján, who had basically disappeared for months after a good beginning of the season (4th goal in the league for her today, but she wasn't scoring since mid-September) and they went on 2-0 within the 4th minute with the first of two goals by Miriam Longo (who scored in 2nd Half also). Como can't be overlooked, though: they had caught late draws vs Milan and Juventus in the previous weeks and even today, despite behind behind by 3-0, they almost made it! But the goals by Julia Karlernäs and Chiara Beccari (this 18 yo prospect is sure the future of Italy NT :notworthy:) weren't enough! :x3:

    Recap:
    Sassuolo 2-2 Parma
    Milan
    0-2 Roma
    Como
    2-3 Fiorentina

    The rankings (with goal difference in brackets):
    Roma 30 (+18)
    Juventus 24 (+18)
    Fiorentina 22 (+1)
    Inter 19 (+13)
    Milan 16 (+2)
    Sassuolo 10 (-4)
    Sampdoria 10 (-10)
    Pomigliano 10 (-11)
    Como 7 (-9)
    Parma 6 (-18)

    highlights:



     
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  12. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Bad Champions' League round for Italian teams, who both squarely lost an away match to what's arguably the best team in their respective group. :unsure: No hope to get 1st place, by now, but the advancement to the quarter finals is not yet compromised for either team.

    Juventus lost 1-0 to Arsenal on Wednesday. They have to hope OL (who of course have beaten Zürich) don't win their next game vs Arsenal and in the end (as long as Juventus will have meanwhile dispatched Zürich too) it will all come down to the direct clash in Lyon, where it's not impossible that Juventus will have two results out of three available, due to the goal difference. OL are not the same team Juventus met in Turin, since they got back some of their injured players and look in a better form, but qualification to the knock-out stage is not completely out of reach for the Italian team.

    Roma are in a much better situation, despite their loss by 4-2 yesterday in Wolfsburg. The draw between St.Pölten and Slavia Prague later in the evening meant two things: Wolsfburg have advanced already from the group stage (also, they will most probably grab 1st place) and Roma have the closer opponent at a reassuring 3 points gap from them: had St.Pölten beaten Slavia Prague (that's by the way now eliminated at 1 point), the task could have become much more thorny for Roma; this way (although, there is sure still a lot of work to do) there is a comfortable path to the 2nd place in the group that basically just involves not losing to the Austrian team at home.

    Highlights of the matches (in Italian):


     
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  13. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Last match-day of Serie A Femminile before the Christmas' break (the league will resume on the 14th of January 2023): the first three matches of it were played today and they were all away-wins.

    Inter's win under the rain vs Pomigliano was the usual one-woman show by Tabitha Chawinga: by now, you have to wonder if Inter has anything else to show beyond her, since it looks like all of their good results strictly depend on her. The question still remains undecided (or is it, by now? :cautious:), but at the very least, today, Inter also showcased two wonderful accurate assists by Norwegian Right-Back Anja Sønstevold.
    Pomigliano scored in additional time with their Guatemalan magic-box star Ana Lucía Martínez, but it was too little too late: Napoli's team's dimension will remain the fight to avoid relegation and only occasionally they can hope to take points from the title pool's teams.
    Worth noting that, with today's brace, Tabitha Chawinga took the solitary lead of the scorer's rankings with 9 goals.

    Sassuolo-Milan only lasted 30" seconds.
    Half-joking, but after Milan's goal at 1' (the 7th in the league for Kosovare Asllani, assisted by Marta Mascarello, two new signings from this summer's market campaign), the rest of the game was quite boring to say the least. :sleep:
    One of the few interesting notes was the energy shown by U-17 Manuela Sciabica, a very promising 16 yo that Giampiero Piovani subbed-in at Half-Time: not even the first time she manages to impress in Serie A! :coffee:

    Finally, Fiorentina easily clobbered more-last-placed-than-ever Parma by 0-4. Viola's front-line worked very well, not only with the scorers (Alexandra Jóhannsdóttir with a brace, Zsanett Kaján from PK, Vero Boquete with a middle-range effort) but also with the assist-women as Miriam Longo: each player contributed to some excellent offensive actions. On the other hand, though, the quality of opponent's defending was abysmal and basically Fiorentina's players were left free to build their game-plan undisturbed, so it's probably not the case of reading too much into this match. :coffee:
    Anyway Fiorentina now reach 2nd-place, while waiting for Roma-Juventus tomorrow. Today all of the top-teams have won their respective games, but at least one of Roma and Juventus won't, so it can be a good chance for Fiorentina to aim for the top, be it chasing Roma at 1st place or "just" fighting for a Champions' League's spot.

    Today's scores:
    Pomigliano 1-2 Inter
    Sassuolo
    0-1 Milan
    Parma
    0-4 Fiorentina

    Highlights of the matches:



     
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  14. tjabba92

    tjabba92 Member

    Arsenal
    Sweden
    Jan 12, 2022
    According to fotbollskanalen.se Fiorentina will be adding striker Pauline Hammarlund from BK Häcken to their squad as soon as she clears the medical. She is reputed to get one of the top salaries in the Serie A Femminile.
     
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  15. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    I had heard about that rumour, but I wasn't sure if it was already a done deal. I am happy that Swedish sources can confirm it.

    There sure will be other signings from the Scandinavian market, during this winter break, because in this time of the year Nordic leagues are finished, while Serie A Femminile is in the middle of the season and many clubs are looking from high-level reinforcements that they can't find on the Italian market nor in leagues that are mid-season too (Gemany, France, England, Spain...).
     
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  16. tjabba92

    tjabba92 Member

    Arsenal
    Sweden
    Jan 12, 2022
    As a Häcken fan I'm not too happy about it... But there are probably a number of current players from the Damallsvenskan that will be moving from Sweden, not the least from Eskilstuna United who finished 8th in the league and have be regulated to the Elitettan because of economic issues.
     
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  17. Lechus7

    Lechus7 Member+

    Aug 31, 2011
    Wroclaw
    couldn't resist... :ROFLMAO:

    Zrzut ekranu 2022-12-11 163328.jpg
     
  18. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    #1718 blissett, Dec 11, 2022
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2022
    So, the latest rankings before the long one-month winter break say that Juventus are back in contention for the title, while Roma suffer the 2nd consecutive 4-2 loss in the last 4 days (Wolfsburg in WCL and Juventus today). o_O
    Frankly I couldn't understand much what the fight from @Lechus7's caption here above was about, I can only tell you that it ended with a YC each for Valentina Giacinti and Lineth Beerensteyn. :p

    But let's first give a look the the first match of the afternoon, Sampdoria-Como, that ended on a 0-1 score.
    When I have to eat my words, I admit it. On 11th of Semptember, I was writing on this thread:
    Well, it looks like Julia Karlernäs wasn't marginal at all. :unsure: She scored her third goal in the league today and it was the winner for Como's 1st away win in this season. Apart fron that goal, Como showcased their usual U-19 wunderkind-trio of Chiara Beccari, Matilde Pavan and Beatrice Beretta; this last one was not always the starting GK in Como but today she was and she crucially stopped a shot by Sara Baldi, basically the only dangerous player for Sampdoria in this match: the other ones looked like they weren't even trying, including Yoreli Rincón, who criminally wasted a PK (that, on the other hand, had maybe been given too much generously :cautious:).
    This win by Como creates a very interesting situation in the rankings, with 4 teams level at 10 points, and only Parma left behind at 6. Since Milan won while all the teams previously at 10 lost, the gap between the first 5 teams and the last 5 ones is now 9 points: basically the title pool and the relegation pool are already decided 6 match-days before the end of the regular season. I seriously doubt anything can change, by now, so it will be just a question of scrambling for better positioning in each pool. :coffee:

    And now to the big match, where Roma took more goals against (4) than they had took in all of the previous league-matches this season (3). o_O What did happen? Difficult to say: Roma had looked nigh unbeatable so far (except Juve had won by 1-0 in the first leg also :whistling:), but maybe the strain of a long season that had started in August with the preliminary round of Champions' League is finally taking its toll on them? :cautious: It was anyway a very open and entertaining match, that, at least until the moment when Roma equalized on 2-2, could have gone either way. Then, in the final half-hour, Juventus definitely took control of the game and Roma ended paying some uncharacteristically bad defensive mistakes that remind of the recent WCL match vs Wolfsburg.
    It's good for Roma that the league will now stop for one month and that they can concentrate on the two upcoming Champions' League matches (in particular the 1st one vs St.Pölten, that could give them the qualification already). Juventus, on the other hand will be more confident right now, both in Serie A (where they refused to give 2nd place to Fiorentina) and in Champions' League (where they need two good performances vs Zürich and OL: the Juventus seen today can make it!).
    I previously apologized for overlooking Como's Julia Karlernäs; I sure don't have to apologize to anyone about Lineth Beerensteyn, who always looked like a top-signing to me, despite the naysayers. :sneaky: She scored a brace today and even celebrated with a Sam-Kerr-like flip: she torched Moeka Minami on the first goal and mocked Carina Wenninger on the second: i.e., she basically disposed of the two big defensive signings of Roma's summer market campaign. In this moment, she sure is Juve's top-weapon. But what really made the difference was that today all of the team "clicked", youngsters and veterans alike, including the two other scorers, excellent 22 yo Julia Grosso and gritty 32 yo Cristiana Girelli. Sarah Björk Gunnarsdóttir had a very good game too (and hit a crossbar), but it looks like she went out injured again!!! :x3:
    Roma actually worked quite well from the waist up: Annamaria Serturini converted early, from a Manuela Giugliano's brilliant assist, a very similar chance to the one she had missed vs Wolfsburg; Andressa Alves slammed in the 2-2 in style; but even those who didn't score, as Valentina Giacinti and Emilie Haavi, looked completely up to the task. It's the defense who let Roma down today and they'll have to regroup quickly before the key Champions' League's games scheduled for next weeks. :ninja:

    Today's matches:
    Sampdoria 0-1 Como
    Roma
    2-4 Juventus

    Updated rankings (with goal difference in brackets):
    Roma 30 (+16)
    Juventus 27 (+20)
    Fiorentina 25 (+5)
    Inter 22 (+14)
    Milan 19 (+4)
    Sassuolo 10 (-6)
    Como 10 (-8)
    Sampdoria 10 (-11)
    Pomigliano 10 (-12)
    Parma 6 (-22)

    highlights of today's matches:


     
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  19. Lohmann

    Lohmann Member+

    Arminia Bielefeld
    Germany
    Feb 24, 2020
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    I didn`t doubt that Beerensteyn would be helpful for Juventus in Serie A.

    My comment was: If Beerensteyn is the big market hit other clubs don`t need to be afraid of Juventus next Champions League season.

    If Juve wants to be a realistic candidate for the Champions League title in the next years they need better players than Beerensteyn.
     
  20. tjabba92

    tjabba92 Member

    Arsenal
    Sweden
    Jan 12, 2022
    Julia was the Damallsvenskan's MVP 2018 when she and her Piteå made certain that Rosengård didn't win yet again. She went to Seville a couple of years after that but really didn't fit in. She came to Häcken at the end of Mats Gren's tenure as coach and didn't really fit in with the new coach Robert Vilahamn's system. Vilahamn has gotten rid of a number of high-profile players like Lotta Ökvist who had come over from Manchester United and was a regular starter until Vilahamn took over. As well as Luna Gewitz, who was team captain... Vilahamn has since played with three teenagers in the backline complemented with 37 year old Aivi Luik or U23 player Josefine Rybrink. Which sounds weird but when you weigh in the fact that the entire backline will be part of the January camp for the national team you realize it's not. My point here is that a lot of very good players have left because they haven't fit into the coach's system or didn't get enough playing time and Julia Karlenäs is a prime example.
     
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  21. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Arsenal should have been afraid of Beerensteyn in Champions' League, to the point that she scored against them in Torino. :coffee: OL would better be afraid too, who knows what can happen in the future... :whistling:
     
  22. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    I didn't actually know her, because I don't closely follow Damallsvenskan, and, as you mentioned, she didn't have particular success in her previous experience outside Sweden. But now that I had the chance to see her play in Italy, I can sure appreciate her merit. :)
     
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  23. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    #1723 blissett, Dec 17, 2022
    Last edited: Dec 17, 2022
    This is the first week-end of the winter break in Serie A Femminile; it can't be worth using it for a recap of the Champions' League matches involving Italian teams (this round of matches was played on Thursday and Friday, instead of on Wednesday and Thursday, not to overlap with the man's World Cup's matches, I suppose :cautious:).

    In the 4th match-day of Group Stage, both Juventus and Roma had lost to the top teams of their respective groups, Arsenal and Wolfsburg; in this 5th match-day, instead, both teams won at home by an identical margin of 5-0! :eek: It was decidingly a positive match-day for Italy, but this two wins, despite the similar score, had a much different meaning.

    For Juventus, the win "just" meant that they're still in the run to advance to the quarter-final. The opponent was Zürich FC, the weakest team of the group and the only one who hadn't made any point, so a win was expected, but Juventus did more than just that: it was a strong and convincing performance, with at least two players who impressed the most: Cristiana Girelli who scored 4 goals (!!!), including 2 PKs (scored in completely different ways) and a back-heel from CK action, and Lineth Beerensteyn, who was involved in all of the 5 goal-actions (!!!!!), including winning both PKs and scoring a back-heel from CK action too (Zürich weren't defending those very well :rolleyes:). But all of the team played very smoothly; check out the action of the 4th goal, involving an inspired Barbara Bonansea: it was a joy to see.
    That wonderful evening at the Allianz Stadium only had two big downsides, and the delay for snow wasn't one of them: the first was that Lineth Beerensteyn picked up an ankle-injury at 83' and had to limp out of the pitch in tears; it seems quite unlikely that she can perfectly recover in time for the crucial clash vs OL scheduled for next week, and she currently looked like the player with the best form in the team! :x3: The other problem was that, later in the evening, OL managed to win vs an anyway qualified Arsenal in London by 0-1, thus forcing Juventus to win the direct clash in Lyon to advance: it's a shame, because Juventus had shored up their goal difference in a way that any other result but an OL's win in the Arsenal-OL match would have allowed them to advance with just a draw in the last game. With Beerensteyn, I would have anyway given Juventus a decent chance to make it; without her, I see it as a nigh impossible task, because Beerensteyn has slowly but steadily become Juventus' main weapon.
    We're going to see next week: it will anyway be an exciting match to follow. :coffee:

    For Roma, the 5-0 win had a completely different taste, because it qualified them to the knock-out stage and, since Wolfsburg only had a 0-0 draw vs Slavia Prague, they even kept a slim chance to do it as 1st-placed in the group. Coach Alessandro Spugna, in the post-game interviews, wondered if any club in the history of Women's Champions' League ever managed to reach the quarter-finals as a debutant in the competition: I can't answer that (some historians would be needed for that :p), but there's no doubt that Roma's result was quite the achievement: they started from the preliminary round in August and they even were a pot 4 team in this Group Stage: it's true that they had particulary "friendly" draws both when they picked Sparta Prague in the previous direct-elimination round and when they got this very "feasible" group, compared to what they could have got instead. On the other hand, eliminating Glasgow City and Paris FC in the qualifying rounds sure wasn't a cakewalk and you anyway had to show that you were deserving the subsequent lucky draws. Roma did and they already went farther than anyone could have realistically dreamt. Can they go even farther? That doesn't seem very likely, especially if they'll remain 2nd-placed in their group, because most of the opponents, at this stage, look like potential finalists of the whole tournament, but, hey, since they got there, why not giving it a try anyway? :p
    For what concerns the match, the main worry was the long rain-related delay (the ref had been forced to stop the game at 8'), that at some point threatened the postponement of the match to today. For the rest, St.Pölten hardly looked dangerous at all and Roma always gave the impression to be in control of the game, despite the fact that, after going ahead in the middle of 1st Half with Anna Maria Serturini, they waited until 82' to score the other 4 goals in the space of just 6 minutes, when the Austrian team completely crumbled apart. o_O Manuela Giugliano now looks like a legitimate international-caliber ace: her long-range pin-point assists, like the one of 1st goal, have reached an incredible level of accuracy and consistency and she even managed to score a brace herself (the way she trapped the ball under the rain to score her first looked almost unreal). But all of Roma's offensive players were outstanding: Annamaria Serturini, who gave headaches to her marker on the Right-Side; Benedetta Glionna, who replaced her in the middle of 2nd Half and managed to assist Giugliano for the 3rd goal, to score the last one, and to half-score :p the 2nd one that was finally given to Valentina Giacinti; Giacinti herself (a goal and an assist for her); and finally ever-present Emilie Haavi, who started the action of 4th goal, assisted the 5th one with a long drive rivaling Giugliano's ones, and was a constant general danger on the Left-Side. Whichever opponent they will pick in the quarters, it's difficult to deny that they will have to somehow respect such offensive power. :ninja:

    Highlights of both matches:


     
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  24. Lohmann

    Lohmann Member+

    Arminia Bielefeld
    Germany
    Feb 24, 2020
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    No, it`s just a matter of logic that in the first season of Champions League eight debutants reached the quarterfinal!:laugh:. If we exclude this case we just have to go to last season where Real Madrid reached the quarterfinal.
    Winners as debutant(if we include UEFA Women`s Cup(until 2009)):
    2002: Frankfurt (first season)
    2005: Potsdam
    2009: Duisburg
    2013: Wolfsburg
     
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  25. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    I was sure someone would have answered this way! :rolleyes: I was of course excluding the first edition: next time will I have to spell it out? :whistling:
     

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