Weird she didn't pass her team mate, since she had cramps and her team mate was in a much better position
Juventus Lyonnes (H) Bayern (A) Benfica (H) St.Pölten (A) Manchester United (H) Atletico Madrid (A) Roma Barcelona (H) Chelsea (A) St.Pölten (H) Real Madrid (A) Valerenga (H) Leuven (A) Roma lucky
With anything else replacing Manchester United, Juventus' draw could be even seen as ok, after all ; but Manchester United makes it quite hairy instead. Roma are historically lucky with the draw, but Real Madrid, as recently seen, are a very dangerous opponent (in an away match, to boot) and Barcelona is a repeat of the semifinal from 2023 that stopped Roma's run in what was probably their best season. Anyway, if they play like in the 1st leg vs Sporting, they won't go anywhere.
Europa Cup's draw has been quite generous to Inter, who will have to meet Vllaznia. The Albanian Champions are the only women's club from their country to have ever reached the group stage of the UEFA Women's Champions' League (happened three seasons ago, if I am not wrong), but they should anyway be well within Inter's reach.
Champions League Schedule Juventus 7.10 Benfica (H) 16.10 Bayern (A) 12.11 Atletico Madrid (A) 19.11 Lyonnes (H) 9.12 St.Pölten (A) 17.12 Manchester United (H) Roma 8.10 Real Madrid (A) 15.10 Barcelona (H) 11.11 Valerenga (H) 20.11 Leuven (A) 10.12 Chelsea (A) 17.12 St.Pölten (H)
Tonight, the first semifinal of the Women's Cup between Roma and Lazio will be played. I don't know of any free streaming of it (it will be broadcast by Sky TV), so I'll probably only follow it through a live-ticker and I'll post score and highlights later tomorrow, when available.
I do not know for sure as the guide I have access to does not seem to specify the teams in a recognizable way but, if this is Serie A Women's Cup Soccer then it is being carried in the USA by FOX soccer plus. They list two matches today. One playing now is ROM vs SAS and later they will have another match but the listing does not show the teams involved. The ROM vs SAS match is currently in the 67th minute and it is Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler 2-0 for ROM. I do not even know if this is live as nothing in the listing says live.
The match will start in about 15 minutes, so it's not the same one. ROM vs SAS suggests a Roma-Sassuolo match of some sort, while the semifinal that's going to start is Roma-Lazio. Thanks anyway for trying to help!
So, yesterdey in the evening the first semifinal of the Women's Cup has been played (it was a single match on the neutral ground of Castellammare di Stabia, so the winner was directly advancing to the final). Lazio could have scored early with a good volley by Flaminia Simonetti (and who knows if it could have changed the course of the game), but after that it was just Roma. The first goal was by Emilie Haavi, with the same move she has used for years (entering the box in the run from the Left-Side, following that with a sudden dribbling on the right that completely wrong-foots the Defender who's marking her and slinging a low powerful shot towards the far post): you would believe that the opponents should know the trick, by now, but most of them fall for it anyway; a sign that the execution has by now reached perfection. After a post hit by Manuela Giugliano, the 2nd goal was scored by excellent Alice Corelli (who, unlike what had happened in the WCL's games, was finally a starter). Then the 2nd Half was almost useless, but Roma anyway closed the game with a late goal by hour-mark-sub Evelyne Viens (her full recovery after her previous injury can become Roma's best "signing" of this part of the season). The score Roma 3-0 Lazio Highlights: Today, the second semifinal, Inter-Juventus, will be played at 18:30.
The final of the Women's Cup will be a match that's been seen many times in other Italian women's football's competitions in the latest years (Coppa Italia, Supercoppa Italiana): Roma-Juventus. Juventus didn't have it easy, though: they scored first in the dying minutes of the 1st Half with an header by Michela Cambiaghi (at her first crucial goal with her new team); then, at the hour mark, two players were subbed-in: Cristiana Girelli (indeed replacing Michela Cambiaghi) and Eva Schatzer: and it was them who, a pair minutes later, created the second goal for Juventus, with a back-heel assist by Cristiana Girelli that was converted in goal by Eva Schatzer with a low shot from just outside the box. At that point, one could have believed that Inter was going to call it a day and give up: instead they started pushing like crazy in the last half-hour, they scored right away with Tessa Wullaert, and they subsequently had a boatload of dangerous chances: Martina Lenzini saved on the goal-line a shot by Marie Dutruyer, then young Dutch GK Daniëlle de Jong, 22 yo, who had been chosen as a starter in this game, had to make a pair miracles on shots by Henrietta Csiszár and Beatrice Merlo. In the end, Juventus managed to cling to the 2-1 score, but they sure were shaken and the upcoming final vs Roma looks like a quite open game, at least on paper. The score: Juventus 2-1 Inter The highlights: The final, Roma-Juventus will be played on Saturday the 27th of September at 17:30, still on the neutral ground of Castellammare di Stabia (the men's team of that town is called Juve Stabia, though, so maybe it's actually an home-game for Juventus! ). I guess the live-match will be behind a pay-wall by Sky TV, as the semifinals were.
Yesterday, the final of this first edition of the Women's Cup has been played and once again, as in last season's edition of Coppa Italia, Juventus managed to beat Roma, but it was a very different game from that 4-0 from last May. Juventus went ahead early with a goal by Amalie Vangsgaard, finally clinical, from an assist by Lindsey Thomas (who's back in Juve's starting line-up after some time: was she maybe injured? ). The rest of the 1st Half, though, was an onslaught by Roma, who even hit the crossbar and the post in the same action. In the end, it was once again Emilie Haavi (most probably Roma's current best player) to find the equalizer: her goal was similar to the one from Tuesday vs Lazio, but it wasn't exactly a carbon copy, since, after her usual unstoppable dribbling on the right, she aimed to the closer post with a high shot, instead of to the far post with a low shot. Between the end of the 1st Half and the beginning of the 2nd Half, Roma were the most dangerous team and I'd say it was the respective GKs who made the difference: Pauline Peyraud-Magnin, who was back in goal for Juventus after the good performance by young Daniëlle de Jong in the semifinal, made at least two outstanding saves (in particular one, with her fingertips, on Manuela Giugliano), while on the other side Olivie Lukášová almost gifted a goal to Cristiana Girelli (who, anyway, incredibly, and quite comically, missed) and in general never looked like she could make any miracles; the Czech international has apparently become the first choice GK over Rachele Baldi, but in this first month it doesn't seem to me that she showcased anything special. Of course, the 2-1 goal by Juventus was basically unsavable: Barbara Bonansea pulled out an "Homare Sawa" from CK action (compare her goal to the Japanese world-beater's one in the WWC final from 2011 ) and put Juventus ahead again. But Roma kept clinging to the game and they found the equalizer with about 10 minutes to go: it was again Emilie Haavi who roamed on the Left-Side and made an accurate and powerful cross for captain Manuela Giugliano, who, through a torsion of her body, converted with an exquisite header. The draw was basically a fair result, at that point, and well reflected the course of the game, with an endless back-and-forth between the two teams, but in the end it was Juventus who found the final blow, with Lindsay Thomas at 90'+2': phew, what a game! Looks like these two teams are ready to dominate the domestic season, if they won't be too much distracted by their Champions' League's campaigns; not sure if they're properly equipped to compete on the international stage, but they can sure be spectacular on the Italian one instead! The final score: Juventus 3-2 Roma Highlights (they haven't been uploaded yet on the usual YouTube channel, but I found these other official ones from RAI-TV ; hope they're not geo-blocked ):
I figured they were going to upload them there, eventually, but I wanted to write my report earlier. Thanks for posting the video that can be accessed without VPN.
Unlike the past seasons, these days Italy have some significant NT members playing abroad (Sofia Cantore, Arianna Caruso, Elena Linari, Lisa Boattin, Aurora Galli, although it's not a given that this last one is still part of the NT); the scope of this thread, though, can't include closely following these players in their respective leagues (unless someone helps me by posting about their performances here), because it's both a little too much off-topic and way beyond my personal forces. Sofia Cantore, though, it's a special case: she's probably the most bright talent Italy has right now (not a case that she was in the shortlist of the Ballon d'Or alongsde Cristiana Girelli) and she went playing for an high profile team in one of the most competitive leagues in the world (arguably more of the European ones because of the higher parity), so it makes sense to sometimes spend some words about her if she does something exceptional. Yesterday, in Washington Spirit's home match vs Houston Dash, she had quite an hill to climb when she was subbed-in at HT, since her team was up by 3-0 already with an hat-trick of the very player she was going to replace, Gift Sunday (that I guess can be considered her main rival for a starting place); she anyway played a very good 2nd Half, where she showed how easily she adapted to USA's very direct style (one could say even too much direct ), had a good shot saved by the opponent GK and finally, at 82', she scored with an outstanding back-heel flick from an assist by Japanese MF Narumi Miura. With her, a little bit of Italy is shining in NWSL. For records, Lisa Boattin was just sitting on the bench for Houston Dash: maybe they should consider playing her, given the score they suffered without her. Please watch Sofia Cantore's goal in highlights, because it's worth:
Lovely goal. I think she has done quite well so far, as it has only been a couple months in the league.
After the end of the Women's Cup, first match-day of Serie A Femminile with 4 matches scheduled for today. Roma, at least on the domestic scene, seem quite strong, while some of the newly promoted teams, as Parma, will sure need some time to adjust to the top division: today's score was an unforgiving 4-0. There anyway were some interesting indications: Rachele Baldi was in goal for Roma (who were meeting their previous historic GK Camelia Ceasar, now defending Parma's goal); I do wonder if she was officially picked as a starter in Serie A Femminile over Olivie Lukášová, who had been mostly played so far in Women's Cup and in UEFA WCL, or if this last one was injured, since she wasn't even sitting on the bench. The goals were quite interesting too, since they were mix of new and old, of youthness and experience: the opener was scored by Alice Corelli, who could possibily find her final consecration in this season; the second one was scored by new signing Rinsola Babajide, who was quite convincing so far; in the 2nd half we had a middle-range effort aimed to the right-high corner of the goal by captain Manuela Giugliano and finally the icing on the cake by Giulia Dragoni, who was finally back on the pitch after being subbed-in at 64'. Her action was really impressive: there were two Roma's players on the ground, but she Maradona-like dribbled the whole Parma's team and went to score! She could be an important piece of the team, this season: having her back will be great for NT also. Inter were equally convincing vs a newly promoted team: they were already ahead by 1-0 with a goal by Martina Tomaselli when Ternana lost their captain Eleonora Pacioni to a VAR-supported Red Card. From then on, the match basically had no history and Inter easily scored 4 other times, with Haley Bugeja (a golden season for her so far, who's at her 5th goal already in various official competitions), 18 yo Montenegrin startlet Maša Tomašević, old veteran Tessa Wullart and recent addition Nikée van Dijk, who was signed a few weeks ago to replace ACL-injured Annamaria Serturini. Bottom line: everything went smooth for Giampiero Piovani's side. Fiorentina were quite disappointing instead, despite their very active market and the offensive potential they can curently deploy, at least on paper. Even before the defensive blunder that, at 76', lead to the only goal of the match by Danish FW Cecilie Fløe, that gave the three points to Napoli, Fiorentina's shots had been scarce and weak and the best chances had been built by the hosts, especially with their one-woman-army top-player Marija Banusic. If Fiorentina's new coach Pablo Piñones-Arce can't manage to find some solutions, I predict a quite short permanance on this team's bench for him. The second mild-upset of the game was the 0-0 draw Alessandro Spugna's Sassuolo imposed to the Champions of Italy of Juventus. these last ones had the best chances (especially with a Chiara Beccari's header that hit the post in the 2nd Half), but they couldn't convert any of them and even ended up running some risks on a final counterattack action. So Juventus are already slipping: my observations is that, currently, the players who should be some of their top-strikers, as Amalie Vangsgaard and newly signed Michela Cambiaghi, aren't being productive enough: you can't always rely on good old Cristiana Girelli (who, by the way, wasn't on the pitch at all today). The results: Roma 4-0 Parma Inter 5-0 Ternana Napoli 1-0 Fiorentina Sassuolo 0-0 Juventus The highlights: Bonus news: talking about Italian players abroad (as we were recently doing with Sofia Cantore), Arianna Caruso opened the score today in a 4-0 home win by Bayern München vs Werder Bremen. Highlights:
So Serie A use Football Video Support (FVS) like FIFA in youth tournaments where the coach can request the referee to go to the monitor. "will allow the referee, at the request of the coaches of either team through a conventional signal and the handing of a card to the fourth official, to review a specific game situation on the monitor. Four types of situations can be reviewed: goal decisions, penalty decisions, direct red cards, and possible cases of mistaken identity. In the Serie A Women Athora league, the referee will also review every goal on the monitor before play resumes."