PSG-Juventus highlights are now available: Not much to add to what's been said here on this thread during the game, except that everyone in Europe, right now, should respect Juventus, who so squarely won the double-header vs PSG with two indisputable wins, both at home and away. We're talking Paris Saint-Germain, a team that, in the last 10 years, was 9 times in UEFA WCL's top 8 (including the last 6 editions), 7 of those 9 times in top 4, and 2 of those 7 times a finalist (although their last final was in 2017-2018). 'Nough said. I have already observed, but it's worth repeating it, that in the final moments of the match, when it was important to prevent PSG to come back into the game, Juventus had a distinct "vintage feeling": at some point Barbara Bonasea (who had replaced Cristiana GirellI), Sara Gama and Martina Rosucci were all on the pitch at the same time and they all gave a crucial contribution in offense or in defense. These players can't probably be reliable starters anymore (not always, anyway), but, as super-subs, their experience can be an invaluable tool in Juventus' arsenal (pun intended ).
Talking about Arsenals: Meanwhile, the draw for UEFA WCL's group stage have happened. I'll copy and paste the outcome of it as @Lohmann posted it on the UEFA Women's Champions League 2024/25 thread. Group A Lyon Wolfsburg Roma Galatasaray Group B Chelsea Real Madrid Twente Celtic Group C Bayern Arsenal Juventus Valerenga Group D Barcelona Manchester City St.Pölten Hammarby What can we say? Of course carving a place for one of the Italian teams in Group B would have looked like a dreamlike outcome, but I guess at this point Roma and Juventus don't have to be scared of anyone. Many things can happen in a long Champions' League's group-campaign and many favourable or disadvantageous situations can create along the way. At the moment, the Italian teams, who came from the 3rd pot, look indeed like third bests in their respective groups, but it's not impossible that at least one of them manages to upset one of the bigger leagues' teams and to squeeze into the quarter-finals: it has already happened (and against all odds), it can happen again.
Good points that benching players can be a good "wake up"-call, totaly agree. Think Berensteyn should've been that last season as well when she didn't score a single goal after christmas, luckily Echegini could replace her goals . Btw was it only me who got a bit sad Spugna didn't give Dragoni all possible time needed to score a hattrick? Anyway probably fair to give Pandini some playtime, it's a team sport after all, and Dragoni was probably more than happy anyaway , but but would've been a cool thing.
Well, it isn't a given that she would have scored the third goal, had she remained on the pitch! And then, I guess scoring a brace in a Champions' League's match as her first official goals at Roma was enough of a satisfaction for a 17 yo (it's so long that she's around, that it's difficult to realize that she'll only turn 18 this November! ). Also, did you notice how cool her second goal was? She's sure going to grow into an amazing player, she already has the marks of a generational talent, but at her age "step by step" is the name of the game: and she already made quite giant steps, yesterday. Also, you're correct that giving playing time to Marta Pandini when your team is ahead by 6-2 (and 9-3 on aggregate) is a wise move: her signing could be seen as a little marginal among the exchanges that happened between Roma and Inter in the last months (Annamaria Serturini and Elisa Bartoli from Roma to Inter, Frederikke Thøgersen from Inter to Roma), but actually she's a solid player; probably seldom a starter in this team, but actually a luxury solution from the bench when needed. Of course, she needs to gel with the rest of the team in a competitive set-up, though.
Yea, I noticed that little flick or move or trick, whatever you call it, very cool .I like Dragoni's individual skills a lot, there you can really see how talented she is, she must probably work a bit to be more involved, make her free to receive balls and so on, but it should come with age . Yea probably a team like Roma need some rotation players also, as they plays so much games. Same with Juve, an actually hard working Lehmann can be handy against teams like Napoli, Sampdoria etc
The exact schedule for the Champions' League's group-matches has been published: I won't go into details, but the first matches for the Italian teams will be Roma-Wolfsburg on the 8th of October and Vålerenga-Juventus on the 9th of October. Meanwhile, Serie A Femminile resumed, with two games being played today. The first one, Como-Sampdoria, had already a taste of "relegation clash" written on it, despite so few games having been played, and in fact the two teams were more or less content to share the spoils with a 1-1 draw. The visitor team went ahead early in the 1st Half through an own-goal by Mina Bergersen, who deflected in her own goal a cross from a Corner-Kick action. Como, though, patiently pushed forward for all of the 1st Half, until they managed to equalize towards the end of it with a good action finalized by usual suspect Nadine Nischler. After that, the 2nd Half was more or less a blank. Sassuolo-Inter was setting up the interesting clash between Giampiero Piovani and Gian Loris Rossi, who took his place on Sassuolo's bench after having been Piovani's assistant-coach for 2 seasons: who could know better than him the secrets of his former mentor? It was an entertaing game: Inter scored first, quite against the run of play, in the middle of the 1st Half, with Annamaria Serturini converting a delicious back-heel assist by Elisa Polli; the home team, though, managed to equalize at the beginning of the 2nd Half with Kassandra Missipo. In the end, though, Inter's depth made the difference (the likes of Michela Cambiaghi and Lina Magull had been initially rested, but they were subbed in 10 minutes into the 2nd Half): a goal by Tessa Wullaert and an own goal by Martina Brustia set the score on the final 1-3 result. Inter are for real: this season, I am quite sure they can fight until the end for the title or at least for a Champions' League's spot. Today's scores: Como 1-1 Sampdoria Sassuolo 1-3 Inter Highlights:
Two games today, but the match-day will only end tomorrow with Juventus-Fiorentina. Just one half of the game, with the help of a magnificent Manuela Giugliano, was enough for Roma to quite easily dispose of Napoli. The captain scored a brace and in-between her goals there was one by usual Evelyne Viens. No goals in 2nd Half for Roma (just a post hit by late-sub Giulia Dragoni), on the contrary it was Napoli to get one back at 80' with Michela Giordano, but it was too little too late. Napoli will have to find points elsewhere; Roma can now concentrate on the top-clash vs Inter next week-end and then with the first Champions' League's group-stage game vs Wolfsburg. Milan won their first match of the season in Serie A Femminile vs Lazio, but it sure wasn't a smooth job. The home team charged like a bull in the 1st Half, especially with Chanté Dompig's runs, but there wasn't much finesse in their attacks; indeed it was actually Lazio who went ahead first, in the final part of the 1st Half, with a powerful shot by their captain Noemi Visentin, that hit the crossbar and went in. Milan equalized two minutes later with an header by Julie Piga from FK action. Later in the 2nd Half, it was Julia Piga again who gave Lazio a PK (and picked up a Yellow Card in the process): Martina Piemonte, though, was hypnotized by Laura Giuliani and sent it crashing on the post (the home comment-guy claims that Giuliani even had a piece of it: not easy to judge with the only camera-angle we get ). In the end, it was a late-sub, Polish FW Nikola Karczewska, who decided the game at 81'. Probably a draw would have been more fair, but in the end it was Milan who did what was needed to secure the three points. Today's scores: Roma 3-1 Napoli Milan 2-1 Lazio Highlights:
Of course it was a save by Giuliani! She saved it with her left arm (bad contrast of the white ball to the yellow jersey of Giuliani). There was no contact with the post.
Giuliani was the difference I feel,switch goalkeeper and Lazio may even win. wasnt Cetinja quite shaky especially on the second goal? Lazio is a side I hope can stay up, wouldn't cry if Sampdoria or Napoli go down instead. On the Roma game I think this one and the game against Servette showed they are catching up steam. Very beautiful passing today, they look a bit like Barca actuall, but ofcource they got two modes, besides possesion game, they can also play quick on the counter with Giugliano dishing out wonder balls to Viens and Giacinti. Speaking of Barca, I think Dragoni is exciting but I must say, might've said this before, she doesn't feel like a Barca tiki-taka player. Dragoni seems to be more about spontaniety and not so much about following a set model. Read on twitter that Roma fans urged her to pass in some situations and I can see why, she changes Romas smoth passing play quite much, she wanna do a difference her own! Her favourite player is Ronaldinho which I think is quite telling, not a Pep Barca guy, which I think todays Barca is much more modeled after. ¨ That's why I think at the moment that Dragoni is maybe more suited for teams more about indiviualistic actions, that is Juve or for example Lyon. But Dragoni is very young and feels so dynamic you don't really know where to put her and what she will be. Anyway I think she will do awesome in Roma either way. Sorry my ramblings, just needed to get out my thoughts, I probably overthinks though I would love if anybody want's to comment.
Sorry, it doesn't sound wooden for me. Here you can see in the photo that her left arm is up https://www.acmilan.com/en/news/art...first-win-for-the-rossonere-2-1-against-lazio
I wasn't questioning that she made the save (it was near invisible for me from that angle and at that distance, but you proved me wrong), was just saying that, if not wooden, anyway her arm has a very distinctive sound for being human.
Anybody? As I had noticed above, there are barely 4 people or such regularly posting on this thread. Anyway, in my eyes Giulia Dragoni, as solid as the development offered to her at Barcelona was, remains a young player in the making, given her age. This opens up a wide range of options, and it could end going almost any way. I agree that she looks like wanting to be more direct than other players, but this is also helped by her superb technique in many aspects of the game (dribbling, passing, shooting) that give her a solid groundwork to many different roles. I find interesting that Alessandro Spugna tested her in a more advanced position to try to incorporate her in the team: he probably knows that there are players in Roma's midfield that are difficult to move and that give crucial contribution to the team (Manuela Giugliano, Giada Greggi, Saki Kumagai).so Dragoni has to find space further up on the pitch.
Hehe, It put a lot of pressure on the three persons commenting here. My comment sounded a bit more begging than I intended too . Yea it's interesting Spugnas experimenting with Dragoni. Yesterday it felt like she was back a bit more central, actually playmaker role, like Guiglano use to have, havent seen Dragoni be as much of a central point before. Agree dribbling, passing and shots are her biggest strengths.
Fiorentina seem to have completely lost their way after the defeat vs Wolfsburg: they had started the season quite well, both domestically and internationally (by eliminating Ajax), but now they seem to miss their previous confidence and tonight they lose by 4 goals to Juventus, handing them the top of the rankings and been passed by Inter also. Michela Catena looks to me like the posterchild of this moment: a bright talent, who can't seem to find the goal for a mix of bad aim and bad luck and it's becoming more and more nervous because of that. Juventus, on the contrary, are in a brilliant form and beating PSG made them even smugger: everything looks smooth for them and everyone in the team, veterans and youngsters alike, are scoring. Today, the scoresheet reads: Arianna Caruso, Amalie Vangsgaard, Paulina Krumbiegel and even Martina Rosucci, being handed by her team-mates a ball that only needed to be tapped in and scoring for the first time since ages (after having been out for months with an ACL injury). And it could have been even more, since Juve hit a post and Fiorentina kept making defensive blunders (and can't seem to defend a Corner-Kick for their dear lives! ). After 4 match-days, the rankings are starting to take shape: after two seasons of Roma's dominance, it looks like the team to beat is now Juventus. Milan show up for the first time in the upper half of the rankings just by goal difference, but it doesn't actually look like a permament achievement, since they're anyway 4 points behind Roma and much closer to the bottom teams (and especially their performance, despite the win vs Lazio, didn't look convincing at all). You would bet that the 4 teams currently at the top will battle for the 3 Champions' League's places and no-one else will manage to challenge them. Today's game: Juventus 4-0 Fiorentina The rankings (goal difference and goals scored in brackets): Juventus 12 (+10, 16 goals scored) Inter 10 (+10, 13 goals scored) Fiorentina 9 (+2, 7 goals scored) Roma 8 (+4, 9 goals scored) Milan 4 (-1, 4 goal scored) Como 4 (-3, 5 goals scored) Napoli 3 (-5, 3 goal scored) Lazio 2 (-2, 5 goals scored) Sampdoria 2 (-9, 2 goal scored) Sassuolo 1 (-6, 5 goals scored) Highlights of the game:
Fiorentina still got a very thin squad, even starting line up. My ordination for the next winter market is to buy 1 ok striker, 1 good defensive midfielder and 1 great defender .Rarely seen a team as unbalanced as Fiorentina actually. They got lots of top forwards but do they got any top defensive players at all?
Newly signed Maria Luisa Filangeri was supposed to cover that (at least partly), but actually their whole defensive set up looks all over the place.
She may be ok and can surely develop, but not there yet. They need a strong, charismatic defender to steady the team and and some muscles in the middle, go for Karlernäs damn it! They have aquired so many great attacking players in the recent season,but I don't think they have a single great defender.
5th Match-day of Serie A Femminile started today with 3 matches. Of course the clubs who are going to play the Champions' League have been selected to play on Saturday instead of on Sunday: we have to suppose that the matches of this round were scheduled before knowing that Fiorentina weren't going to have that problem anymore. Fiorentina indeed opened the match-day at home vs Como and the visitor team scored first from an awesome combination between Zara Kramžar (the 18 yo Slovenian talent was really a luxury loan from Roma! ) and Elisa Del Estal (it was decided that the ball had already passed the goal-line from her shot, so she was credited the goal); check out Kramžar's backheel assist cutting away Fiorentina's defense-line and putting her team-mate alone in the middle of the box in front of the Goalkeeper: it's the kind of play that you just need to rewatch, so you instinctively create your personal replay by pushing the rewind button (since, this year, Serie A Femminile's highlights videos don't have replays: did I already mentioned it? ). The home team didn't panic, though, and managed to come back with three goals before Half-Time, scored by Emma Severini, Agnese Bonfantini and Danish Full-Back Emma Færge, who this season took the main role in taking Corner-Kicks and lateral Free-Kicks (the central ones are usually taken by Vero Boquete instead), but probably hadn't figured that she was going to score with that "shross". So, today, both Emmas in Fiorentina's roster did score. After that, the teams basically concluded that it wasn't worth playing the 2nd Half; yes, Como somehow tried to come back in the game, but it was mostly half-baked efforts they weren't really believing in. So Fiorentina somehow react after being kicked out of the Champions' League and being bashed by Juventus last week. The team keeps having a shaky defense, though, and it looks like it's often strictly Vero Boquete's dependant. The big match of today was Inter-Roma: the reigning champions needed to win it to seriously get back in contention for the title, the home team not to risk losing contact with Juventus at the top. Roma, who have to rotate their players because of the upcoming match in the Champions' League, once again started with Valentina Giacinti sitting on the bench and Giulia Dragoni up there in an offensive role (the latter was quite wasteful in the 1st Half, though). Emilie Haavi seemed particularly inspired with dribblings, crosses and shots, today, but she found Cecilía Rúnarsdóttir on her way, who seemed to have something personal against her. Towards the end of the 1st Half, though, Roma finally got through: Giulia Dragoni loudly celebrated the goal from a Manuela Giugliano's Corner-Kick, but actually it was an own-goal by Marija Milinković. Inter came back with purpose in the 2nd Half, and it needed a miracle-save by Camelia Ceasar to literally push the ball out of Roma's goal from a Chiara Robustellini's header; but, after knocking a lot, the hosts finally found a PK from an awkward foul by Moeka Minami on Elisa Polli: it was converted by French MF Ghoutia Karchouni, who was finally back on the pitch today after rupturing her ACL at the end of December of 2023; it was sure an exciting way to celebrate her recovery. So it ends in a 1-1 draw, hurting Roma's hopes much more than Inter's. The club from Milan has been passed by Fiorentina at 2nd place, but Roma are now 6 full points behind Juventus, who won the evening match. Juventus-Sampdoria was indeed a quite smooth 2-0 win from the leaders of the rankings, who could afford starting a less than ideal line-up and resting some key-players for the much important Champions' League's clash vs Vålerenga (that Juventus have to win at all costs, to hold some hope against the top-teams of their group, Bayern and Arsenal): Sofia Cantore and Amelie Vangsgaard were late subs at the hour mark only, while Pauline Peyraud-Magnin, Valentina Bergamaschi, Martina Lenzini and Arianna Caruso were kept on the bench, and in the final minutes of the game Massiliamo Canzi preferred to sent in three 18 yo from the youth team (Giulia Bison, Elsa Pelgander and Azzurra Gallo). What more can I say? They even started Alisha Lehmann! Half-joking, she actually had a good assist for the first goal, in the 1st Half (although she wasted a chance after a long solitary run in the 2nd Half! ). Anyway, Juventus won through a good old-fashioned header-brace by Cristiana Girelli, one goal per half : they gained two points over Inter and Roma, while not wasting much energy for Wednesday's match. It's an healthy team, who's dominating the domestic scene and will take its chances in Europe. The matches that were played today: Fiorentina 3-1 Como Inter 1-1 Roma Juventus 2-0 Sampdoria The highlights:
The first game that was played today was a really entertaining one. Two teams at the bottom of the rankings, Lazio and Sassuolo, were meeting and they were both aiming with no hesitation at the full jackpot. Sassuolo went ahead first, with a counterattack by Salvadorian MF Samantha Fisher who started her run in the middle of her own half and didn't falter in front of the goal. At the half-hour, though, the incident that changed the course of the game happened: experienced but often quite rough Belgian DF Davina Philtjens, who was already sitting on a Yellow Card, didn't refrain from tripping Francesca Pittaccio in the midfield right before the referee's eyes, who had no choice but showing her the 2nd Yellow and sending her off. Consequently, the 2nd Half became an onslaught by Lazio, who managed to equalize almost right away, with captain Noemi Visentin. Two minutes later, though, Sassuolo went ahead again, against the run of play, with a slalom-like dribbling by Cecilia Prugna in Lazio's box and a powerful shot by Gina Chmielinski. The home team desperately went back at besieging their opponent and found the 2-2 goal with an header by Eleonora Goldoni from a CK action. Lazio kept pushing, but Sassuolo's GK Lia Lonni was having none of it and showcased awesome save after awesome save, until finally, at 85', Martina Piemonte (who had missed the PK vs Milan last week) put all of her rage in an obstinate action that led to the winning goal for her team. Phew! It was quite some game! The other match was much less exciting, to the point that you can clearly see that the editor of the highlights wan't really sure what he could have filled those 4':50" minutes with. Napoli hit a post in the 2nd Half, but in the end it was Milan who scored the winner at 90'+2', from a Corner-Kick leading to a goal-mouth scramble that ended with Chanté Dompig slamming the ball in the back of the net. Once again, like last week vs Lazio, Milan won a game without giving the impression of really deserving it. Dodging opponents' bullets to later score a random goal seems the name of the game for them. Chanté Dompig, despite her goal, looks like a very mono-dimensional player: ok, she's athletic and she can run, but the shots she spits out at the end of those runs are most often weak and predictable. The rest of the offense-line is equally underwhelming, with an old warhorse as Nadia Nadim (36 yo) alongside a still quite rough product of the youth team as Monica Renzotti (19 yo): leaves you wondering about Milan's market-campaign. Anyway, this win lifts Milan a little closer to the top teams, although the relegation zone remains equally close. Today's recap: Lazio 3-2 Sassuolo Napoli 0-1 Milan The chart (goal difference and goals scored in brackets): Juventus 15 (+12, 18 goals scored) Fiorentina 12 (+4, 10 goals scored) Inter 11 (+10, 14 goals scored) Roma 9 (+4, 10 goals scored) Milan 7 (0, 5 goal scored) Lazio 5 (-1, 8 goals scored) Como 4 (-5, 6 goals scored) Napoli 3 (-6, 3 goal scored) Sampdoria 2 (-11, 2 goal scored) Sassuolo 1 (-7, 7 goals scored) Highlights:
Excellent summary as usual! Some thoughts: I think Prugna is a top player, should go to a bigger side. Hard to fit in in a top club as a midfielder though, it's pretty crowded, it's easier if youre a top defender.. Nice to see Lazio win at least, even though Sassuolo was a bit hard done by the red card.. Milan is not so nice, but they got a couple of gems like Soffia, Guiliani and the dead ball specialist Mascarello. Think they've been very lucky with the points, could've just have easily had 2 instead of 7. A lot of the cred for that goes to Guliani who really is the best gk in the leauge.
I agree that she's excellent. She was quite unlucky in her career so far: she had grown into a distinguished role during her long stint in Empoli, leading her from Serie B to Serie A, to be one of the most appreciated MF in the major division. Then Empoli folded at the end of season 2021-22. Meqnawhile, a top club had indeed noticed her: it was Roma, who though gave her right away on loan to Sampdoria, and we all know all of the financial problems the club had in the last season. Now she's at Sassuolo, but she gets there just when Giampiero Piovani left and all of the plans, for the men's side and women's alike, look like they're being downsized compared to the previous seasons. I am not sure, though, if Roma retained her rights. I should check it out, but she could keep being at Sassuolo as a loan from Roma. It's a fact, thought, that, as you correctly point out, Roma's midfield is currently so stacked that it's difficult to imagine Prugna getting back to the home team. This is just to flatter @Lohmann, admit it!
Hehe,what can I say? Great minds thinks alike Shame she plays in such a shabby team though, Milan should be very grateful. Quite funny when I I wanted Durante Durante to start in the world cup over Guliani. Feels like an entirnity ago,almost forgot Bertolini actually