There are too many months starting with "Ma" in a year for my taste! Hopefully I had provided the links with the correct schedule.
Coppa Italia's semi-finals look very open this year. Today the 1st leg between Inter and Juventus ended on a 1-1 draw, with goals by Julia Grosso for Juventus and Beatrice Merlo for Inter. None of the two teams look clearly ahaed in this contest, so we'll have to wait for next week's decider to see who will advance to the final. Meanwhile, highlights of the game : Tomorrow, the 1st leg of the second semi-final, Milan-Roma, is scheduled.
We can't really talk about an upset: in the end Milan was playing at home and they only won by 1-0, leaving everything open for the 2nd leg scheduled for next Saturday. But it's a fact that so far Roma, in the league, had won twice vs Milan and that the leaders of Serie A Femmilile were most probably the favourite ahead of an anyway likely close match. It was decided by Martina Piemonte, with an header from a Corner Kick taken by Kamila Dubcová. Piemonte looks in a brilliant form, lately, very promising for Italy NT also. Roma's offense-line didn't look very sharp today, but some credit is due to Milan's 2nd GK, Dutch Selena Babb, who was given a lot of playing time in this Coppa Italia tournament and is repaying this chance with some solid performances. Both semi-finals are in fact as tightly-contested as they were looking on paper: we're going to see next week who's going to emerge the winner. Meanwhile, highlights :
Today, both 2nd legs of Coppa Italia's semi-finals were played: they confirmed that the top clubs of Serie A Femminile are very close in power, because they were tight affairs that were resolved at the last possible minute (or beyond). When Martina Piemonte took advantage of a collective defensive blunder to score the 0-1 in Roma at 31', it looked like Milan, now being two goals ahead, had the qualification in hand. But Andressa Alves (who else?) equalized with an header 10 minutes later, just before HT. In the second half Emilie Haavi was a constant danger for Milan on Roma's left wing (nothing new, I know, but Norwegian's winger's level of performance all along this season has been absolutely unreal); in the end the cross leading to Roma's second goal of course came from her foot: Benedetta Glionna's first shot was well-saved, but on the rebound Valentina Giacinti couldn't really miss the target. At that point the two teams were level, but at the end of the game 8' minutes of additional time were called (there had been several injuries, in particular to Alia Guagni, who had to be subbed-out after the action of Roma's 2nd goal; she already had several bad injuries, let's hope it's nothing serious ; also, Milan's coach Maurizio Ganz had been sent out at 70'). In the end, in an unexpected turn of events, it was late-sub (79') and recent signing Vicky Losada who decided the game at the last possible action, at 101' , from a Manuela Giugliano's cross. Roma deservedly advance to the final, but Milan kept it very close up to the end. I want to spend a special mention for Milan's GK Selena Babb; in the league she's clearly a 2nd choice to Laura Giuliani and this is most probably correct, but in my opinion a good talent like young Dutch GK would deserve to be a starting GK in some team, and not to just sit on the bench as she mostly have to do in Milan. She had been given on loan to Sampdoria last season, but she didn't find much space there. I'd say it's worth trying again elsewhere: if Milan want to keep her to eventually replace Giuliani some years from now, the best choice is anyway to give her on loan to some team that will give her some solid playing time. The first leg between Juventus and Inter had ended on a 1-1 score and the second leg had the same result: in a very windy afternoon in Turin, Juventus went ahead early with a Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir's header, but Inter eventually equalized at 83' with their own top-player Tabitha Chawinga. Juventus pushed for the second goal, but it was Stefanie van der Gragt in particular who denied them multiple times on the goal line in regular time. So it was only in extra-time that Lineeth Beerensteyn managed to score from a spectacular personal effort (control with her head, dribbling, dummy to throw half Inter's defense off balance and shot). Once again, a deserved win, but the margins between teams are now minimal. Recap of the scores: Roma 3-1 Milan (aggregate: 3-2: Roma advance to the final) Juventus 1-1 (2-1 after extra-time) Inter (aggregate 3-2: Juventus advance to the final) Highlights of the matches: So the two teams currently at the top of Serie A Femminile and who successfully played this year's Champions' League (Juventus reaching group stage and Roma still being in the run, although having to play Barcelona in the quarter-finals) will duel in Coppa Italia's final also. The exact date of the final hasn't been scheduled yet, but it will anyway be after the end of the league, at the beginning of June. Meanwhile, the chase for the title will start again next week.
They will wait until they know if Roma reach the Champions League final. Beating teams from Luxembourg, Israel and Köge is enough for a successfully Champions League season?
Well, it's extremely likely, isn't it? No, but battling with OL to advance to the quarter-finals until the last posible minute of group stage it is, especially if you consider where Italy comes from in this tournament and that having two teams at group stage was a success in itself. Not all nations are the same: what's normal, even boring for, just saying, a Germany, it is not for Italy.
The title pool starts today (yes, an early match on Friday) and we apparently get more of the same. Roma had won in Firenze by 1-7 earlier in the league; today, they "only" beat them by 1-5, but the message they sent to the other contenders is: "We are here to win the title". Was it a sub-message to Barcelona also? The like of: "Beware, we're not sparring partners"? Who knows... The 1st Half was a display of utter domination, with a brace by Valentina Giacinti and a single goal by Manuela Giugliano, but saying that Fiorentina's defense was shaly is a huge understatement; their offense, on the other hand, was virtually non-existent. In the 2nd Half they at least managed to score a goal with Alexandra Jóhannsdóttir from CK action, but Roma anyway scored another pair, one from CK action also with Carina Wenninger and the other from a pinpoint assist in the box by late super-sub Vicky Losada to Benedetta Glionna. It's impressive how many different scorers Roma had this season, apart from usual suspects Valentina Giacinti and Andressa Alves: a testament to the power of the multiple offensive angles this team can exploit. I had said weeks ago that the results of Fiorentina's direct clashes in the league strongly suggested that they were going to be the weakest team in the title pool and their first display seem to confirm that. The fact that Annahita Zamanian was sent-off in the last minutes of today's match for one word too many with the referee (and will subsequently be suspended for the next game) sure won't help. Today's match: Fiorentina 1-5 Roma Highlights:
Two matches today, one for the relegation pool, one for the title pool, and two wins for the home teams. Sassuolo made the experience in their team count: South-African MF Refiloe Jane opened the score at 6' already; then two veterans of Serie A Femminile as Daniela Sabatino and Lena Clelland left their mark on the match. Frankly, it looked like a clash between two teams of different categories, and it could indeed be soon: Sassuolo strenghten their top-place in the pool, while Sampdoria could drift away soon towards the direct relegation. Juventus-Milan was actually a closer match than the final 2-0 score suggests; it also was the history of two penalties: Martina Piemonte missed the one in 1st Half for Milan (that had been caused by an awkward foul by Pauline Peyraud-Magnin), while Arianna Caruso converted the one for Juventus at 95', after Milan had tried for all of the 2nd Half to equalize the goal scored 10 minutes into it by an explosive Lineth Beerensteyn (Gosia Mesjasz will sure have nightmares about the Dutch FW: she completely lost track of her speed in the action of 1st goal and was forced to foul her in the one of the PK ). So far, everything has looked quite predictable in this second part of the season. Results: Sassuolo 3-0 Sampdoria Juventus 2-0 Milan Highlights:
And the first match-day of the second phase of the league ends today with the second match of the relegation pool. The 1st Half between Pomigliano and Parma seemed quite balanced, with the home team opening the score with excellent Ana Lucía Martínez (who not only scored, but basically started all of Pomigliano's dangerous actions, especially in the 2nd Half) and Parma equalizing just a pair minutes later with their recent top-signing Paloma Lázaro. The 2nd Half was a completely different story, with Pomigliano dominating the scene and scoring three goals. Two of them were by Brazilian Taty Sena (the second one from PK): after a brilliant first half of the season, she had been recently criticized, since her team's bad spell in the last part of the regular season (just one point in the last 5 games) had been blamed on her declining performances. Today she basically shut up all criticism. The 4th goal stands on its own: 19 yo Alice Corelli was a late sub and, in just 10 minutes, she managed to hit the post, to score a screamer and to be sent off (for allegedly taking off her shirt in celebration, actually just lifting it up, and subsequently loudly and lengthly protesting against the referee about that first Yellow ). The impression, after this first match-day of the relegation pool, is that Sassuolo and Pomigliano shouldn't have problems remaining in Serie A Femminile, while the relegation and relegation-play-off spots should be a battle between Parma, Como and Sampdoria. The result of today: Pomigliano 4-1 Parma Highlights:
I think she got the second yellow card for lifting the shirt over her head (which is a correct yellow card). The first yellow card was in the 83rd minute. https://www.kicker.de/pomigliano-gegen-parma-2023-serie-a-femminile-abstiegsrunde-4837938/ticker
Oh, you're right: the source I had read first had basically made up the story of the second Yellow Card and I hadn't checked out other sources! By the way, I see this was the day of Martinez , since they both scored in Italy and in Germany, although, if I remember well, Eintracht Frankfurt's one is actually German, while Pomigliano's is Guatemalan.
UEFA WCL quarter-final Roma-Barcelona live in about an hour : About 35.000 supporters (Italian record) are going to show up at the Stadio Olimpico (1st time ever it's opened to women's football), and this is a win in itself. For what concern the actual clash, no-one actually believes that Barça is beatable: an honorable loss will be enough.
Roma only lost 0-1 to Barça in an evening that indeed saw a record crowd in Italy for a women's football match (39.454 supporters) and the final score even leaves some regret, because the Catalan team dominated about the first hour of the game, and was only limited to one goal by some outstanding goalkeeping by Camelia Ceasar (who showed once again that she's up to the task of defending the goal of a top club), but in the final half-hour Roma had at least 3 or 4 excellent chances to equalize (especially with Manuela Giugliano and Valentina Giacinti, often assisted by that Left-Wing-express-train called Emilie Haavi). I am persuaded that a 1-1 draw wouldn't have been an unfair result, but see by yourself in highlights. Can Roma reverse the score next week? I doubt it. But if last evening the target was having a decent game and keeping the qualification open, it sure has been reached.
After re-thining at yesterday's game and re-watching highlights, my conclusion is that Roma mostly lost the game on the wings: a 31 yo half-injured Elisa Bartoli couldn't match 19 yo Selma Paralluelo's speed on Barça's Left-Wing (it's been mention in the comment that she was a promising 400 m hurdles runner, before ultimately choosing football), while Moeka Minami couldn't match Caroline Graham Hansen's technique on Barça's Right-Wing. That's where the Catalan team created 90% of their chances. Not sure what kind of set up Alessandro Spugna could have in mind for the return match, but more of the same is not going to work.
Indeed. The way she was torching Bartoli everytime she was trying a sprint in yesterday's game was quite embarassing at times. On a different note, talking about the video you posted, I feel for the poor blonde girl who tripped on the one-to-last hurdle and subsequentely sat on the ground and cried for two full minutes.
You might feel better if you see the blonde girl (Martha Rasmussen) dance https://eurosportnutrition.com/news/martha-rasmussen-van-dansster-naar-rijzende-ster-in-atletiek/
They were sold, although most of them at quite popular prices. It's been underlined by DAZN's Italian comment-guys (including former player and actual Genoa Women's sport-manager Marta Carissimi) that this was Italian record attendance for a women's football match with paying supporters.
Today, one match of the relegation pool and one of the title pool were scheduled. The match between the two last-placed teams of Serie A Femminile wasn't particularly exciting. Sampdoria had just one big signing in the winter market and in fact Agnese Bonfantini looks a level above the rest of the team: it was her who opened the score today, but Como managed to equalize in the 2nd Half with an outstanding personal effort by U-19 prospect Matilde Pavan. The 1-1 doesn't mean much to any of the two teams: it's a little better for Como, who were away and anyway keep their one single point advantage over Sampdoria, but anyway this draw seems to make more and more likely that these two teams will keep the last two positions of the rankings. The title (and most probably the second Champions' League spot) remain an affair between Roma and Juventus, who today only needed two lethal CK actions (finalized by Linda Sembrant and Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir) to beat Inter's quite careless defense. The usual suspect Tabitha Chawinga seemed to re-open the game for a moment, with one of her typical, powerful, unstoppable actions, but then Stefanie Van der Gragt (who had anyway had the merit of assisting Chawinga) made a blunder that was the nail on the coffin (a genius back-heel assist by Cristiana Girelli to Barbara Bonansea was anyway needed to complete that action). The final pools could have been an exciting ending to the league, but frankly these first games seem to follow a quite predictable script. The scores: Sampdoria 1-1 Como Inter 1-3 Juventus The highlights:
Today's matches were defined by penalties! Let's see how it all turned out. Today's scorer for Sassuolo was Martina Tomaselli, assisted late in 2nd Half by Lana Clelland, but, unusually, it can be said that the game winner wasn't a scorer: it clearly was GK Isabella Kresche, who saved two PKs (!!! ), respectively taken by Paloma Lázaro and by Melania Martinovic in 1st Half, and both by hypnotizing the penalty-taker, staying up until the last moment and diving to the correct side (that, by the way, was different for each PK); in the second instance, she even deflected in corner the shot from the rebound (while in the action of the first PK she had anyway previously saved a powerful FK by Alice Benoît). Coach Giampiero Piovani was right: in the beginning of the season the Austrian GK had looked like a liability and like a clear downgrade to Belgian NT's Diede Lemey, who had defended Sassuolo's goal until last season, but Piovani had said that he had noticed a constant growth by Kresche and in fact now she became a winning factor. It's not a case, probably, that this is the 4th consecutive win for Sassuolo, who now comfortably leads the relegation pool, while the beginning of the season had been a nightmare, with the team keeping the last place for quite long. Parma, who, in this last part of the season, had seemed way better than they had seemed in the previous months, take a step back and remain within reach of both Como and Sampdoria. They'll have to work some more to avoid relegation. If all the PKs in Parma were missed, all of the ones in Milan were scored, but Fiorentina scored one more than Milan, thus equalizing the game at the last possible moment. In the 1st Half, the game had looked solidly in Milan's players hand: Valery Vigilucci had scored early at 4' and Kosovare Asllani had made it 2-0 at 21', by exploiting a blunder by Federica Cafferata (who, at 22, is a very promising DF at the National Team level, but today was clearly overconfident with that control in the box); incidentally, both goals had been assisted by a cross from the right-side by excellent Guðný Árnadóttir. In the 2nd Half a 1st PK was converted by Vero Boquete, than another, this time for Milan, by Martina Piemonte and the 3-1 score at 74' seemed to put Milan out of reach, also considering that they kept attacking and they hit the crossbar twice with Kamila Dubcová and Aniek Nouwen. But Fiorentina scored out of nowhere with Pauline Hammarlund at 88' and a final PK at 90'+5', conceded for an handball by Aniek Nouwen and once again converted by Vero Boquete, set the final score on an incredible 3-3. Yesterday, I had already said that the title was an affair between Roma and Juventus: it's even truer after today's draw that sees Milan, Fiorentina and Inter all level at 35 points, while Juventus is 11 points ahead at 46 and Roma another 5 more at 51. Champions' League qualification-wise, the league has virtually already ended. Today's results: Parma 0-1 Sassuolo Milan 3-3 Fiorentina Today's highlights:
"Mission Impossible" starting in about 15 minutes at the Nou Camp. Roma starters as the same as the 1st leg, except Vicky Losada replaces Giada Greggi in the Midfield: we're going to see if it will be enough to tip the scales against her former team-mates. I don't expect Roma to make it, but I hope to watch an entertaining game.
Mission Impossible was indeed impossible. The match ends 5-1 for Barça, no contest. No goal scored in the 2nd Half by Annamaria Serturini from an assist by Andressa Alves was anyway nice, and it somehow managed to put an end to Barça's bashing.