Roma can't even beat OH Leuven: equalizer at 81', and it doesn't seem like there are other goals in store.
OH Leuven 1-1 Roma, FT. End of the run for Roma also and very bad international week for Italian teams.
Milan will probably have to avoid losing to Como for that to happen. Meanwhile, Highlights of Roma's game: The PK the host team equalized with seems quite bogus to me: things like that happen with basically any CK being taken and you should give 3 or 4 PKs per game at this rate. Having said that, of course, that's irrelevant if Roma can't actually score any other goal, if they are anyway pressed in their half by a mediocre team and if they anyway couldn't make any point in the tournament before yesterday.
In the first match of today, Genoa was ahead by one goal at HT, by virtue of a neatly converted PK by Norma Cinotti (while Napoli had appealed for a PK of their own, but they had only managed to pick up a YC for Alessia Carcassi's simulation). In the 2nd Half, though, Napoli turned the game on its head by scoring three goals with Cecilie Fløe (the Danish striker is looking more and more impressive in this league), with US Forward Hanna Barker and with less-known Danish late-sub Mali Trøan. Napoli barely avoided relegation last season, but in this one they're looking way better, although on paper you wouldn't have probably bet on them. In Terni, instead, on a soaked and very bad-looking pitch , Ternana and Parma couldn't go beyond a quite poor 0-0 draw. The home team was maybe marginally more dangerous, especially with young U-20 talent Giada Pellegrino Cimò, but on the other hand most of their best actions were actually counterattacks that were allowed by some balls that had been lost in Parma's attacking third. Last week, Ternana had won their first match in Serie A Femminile, but they should have really backed up that with another win vs a direct rival if they really want to catch up with the rest of the field. One point is anyway something and they at least moved closer to the teams who are momentarily at 5 or 6 points. Today's matches: Genoa 1-3 Napoli Ternana 0-0 Parma Today's highlights:
The league will stop next week for NT's friendly double-header vs USA, but before that the 7th match-day needed to be completed today. (When you will watch the highlights, you will notice that the line at the center of the pitch was painted in red today at all venues: it was a sign against gender-based violence by the FIGC). Lazio and Inter were looking for revenge, the former for losing the derby vs Roma, the latter for their disaster of a season so far, peaking with the recent elimination from Europa Cup. Inter was driving the game since the beginning, putting all of their rage on the pitch, but in the 1st Half Lazio someway managed to contain them. In the 2nd Half, though, the visitors scored twice in about 5 minutes: both assists were by Karólína Vilhjálmsdóttir and both goals by Tessa Wullaert. At 90' Lazio had a chance to at least score one back, with a PK that was taken by Martina Piemonte: she had quite an history of missing PKs, last season, but this time I guess we could say that it's not really on her, since Cecilía Rúnarsdóttir's deflection on the crossbar was nothing short of superb. So Inter catch up with Lazio at 9 points in the rankings. Como-Roma was a top-of-the-rankings clash, today: with a win Como could have set themselves at first place along with Roma. As usual Roma need a ton a chances (including one with Manuela Giugliano alone in front of Astrid Gilardi) to hope to finally convert one: it anyway happened just before HT with Evelyne Viens. In the 2nd Half, though, Como won a penalty: @Lohmann would have given it to Alisha Lehmann, who had just been subbed-in, but Nadine Nischler took it instead, despite having missed one and converted another vs Milan last week: Rachele Baldi made a save that wasn't much different from Cecilía Rúnarsdóttir's one in the other game. Warned by this alarm call, Roma tried to put themselves on 2-0, but Evelyne Viens hit a post first and later Roma was denied a PK that led to a RC for dissent to coach Luca Rossettini. Anyway, Roma shore up their lead; Como, though, keep impressing. The match vs Sassuolo had started to go very well for Milan by the beginning of the 2nd Half: HT's sub Park Soo-Jeong had scored after just 2 minutes her first goal at Milan (not sure if a Korean had ever scored before in Serie A Femminile ) and a few minutes later usual suspect Evelyn Ijeh had made it 2-0. Than, at 58', Chanté Dompig was sent off for a foul on Erika Santoro's ankle and here a completely different match started, where Milan, being down a player, had to defend for a full half-hour. In the end Sassuolo's siege was successful, because they scored with an impressive middle-range shot by Lana Clelland and then, at the last minute of additional time, with an header by 40 yo Daniela Sabatino, who had just been subbed-in a few minutes before. Finally, Juventus had a dominating performance vs Fiorentina at home, but they coudln't seem to convert any of their chances (Cecilie Fiskerstrand's opposition actually denied many of them), until, at 92', when the 0-0 draw seemed already written on the wall, Estela Carbonell managed to score the winner that sends Juve at the 2nd-place in the league (along with Napoli, but at the moment they're marginally ahead by goal difference). Today's recap: Lazio 0-2 Inter Como 0-1 Roma Milan 2-2 Sassuolo Juventus 1-0 Fiorentina And highlights: Newly updated rankings: 1.Roma 18 16-7 2.Juventus 13 7-4 3.Napoli 13 11-9 4.Como 12 9-7 5.Fiorentina 11 13-10 6.Milan 10 14-13 7.Inter 9 11-8 8.Lazio 9 7-10 9.Parma 7 4-8 10.Sassuolo 6 6-8 11.Genoa 6 8-12 12.Ternana 4 8-18
Meanwhile a short update about Italians oversea: - yesterday, Sofia Cantore have lost the title-match of NWSL by 0-1 with her Washington Spirit against Gotham FC ; - today, Arianna Caruso has scored Bayern's 5th goal in a 5-1 win vs Hoffenheim .
In the Italian night, Italy have lost by 3-0 the first of two friendly matches vs the USA. Quite expected result and score. I didn't find highlights of the game yet, although the post-match interviews are up already (so it's not like the website's crew wasn't working because it was too early in the morning: any exclusivity or are we going to get to see the highlights later? ):
Roma's Rosanna Ventriglia scored an hat-trick, but the team also includes some of the players from the recent U-17 cycle that we've seen in action at the WWC in Morocco and who have now upgraded to the U-19 team: Giulia Galli scored a brace and so did Caterina Venturelli (who's still wearing a mask for the nose-fracture that prevented her from playing the quarter-final vs Mexico at the WWC and I still regret that! She was a key-player, losing her in that match did hurt ). Today the Azzurrine will take on Bielorussia and later, on the 2nd of December, they will battle with Switzerland for the top of their qualifier group for the Euro.
You can take solace that the third goal was offside (and would not stand with VAR). The statistics may say otherwise, but I did not feel Italy were over-matched--we just keep possession by constantly passing backwards, it's like Spain in reverse. Italy never appeared tired and fought the whole game, had a very good chance early and also an almost successful breakaway that Girma thwarted. Had the third goal not been offside I would have been satisfied--so I'd say 2-0 would have been a fair result.
At about the same moment when some US highlights surfaced, Italy's official YouTube channel uploaded theirs: there was probably some priority involved. Anyway, here they are: In other news, this afternoon U-19 NT have beaten Belarus by 2-0, with a brace by Giulia Galli, who apparently didn't change her scoring habits after the upgrade from U-17 level to U-19. Since Switzerland only won by 2-1 vs Northern Ireland (and they had previously beaten Belarus by 1-0), Italy's goal difference is massively better than the Swiss one. Thus a draw vs them, when they'll face on Tuesday, will be enough to retain the 1st place in this qualifier group (that would mean being seeded to pot 1 in the draw for the next round).
Must say I think USA has developed a lot. A few years ago they had a very experienced side and played a very powerful, but direct kinda football. They went for the kill, a bit like north american sides in hockey goes straigth to goal. No I find that they have a very young squad, and a zillion of options, and has got a lot more technical. . They still play there powerful american kinda football, but they also got this technical, even possesion football nowadays.
Italy of course lost the other match vs USA also, by 2-0, in the Italian night/early morning. Highlights not available yet. Later, this afternoon, the U-19 team played Switzerland to a 0-0 draw that allowed them to win their qualifier group for their age-group's EURO Championship. Here are the (less than exciting) highlights of the game: Italy thus conquered pot 1 in the next draw, but it's not like there aren't dangerous teams in pot 2: Sweden, Norway, Germany, Denmark...
The highlights of the second USA game are available: So, in the end, Francesca Durante in this game took one goal less than Laura Giuliani in the previous one. Jokes apart, I guess this USA trip clearly showed not only that Italy are significantly weaker than USA, but also that they're actually not up there with the top 10 yet. Ok, we have almost beaten England at the EURO, but the "almost" is key here. Apart from the recent losses to USA, a pair months ago we tied Japan and lost to Brazil, and that's our actual dimension. Our NT, at the moment, remains a second-tier team at best, maybe even a third-tier.
Italy will be the host of the U-19 Euro Championship in 2029. In will take place in four basically minor venues (from the just 1500 places of the "Pavone-Mariani" stadium in Pineto to the respectable 13.708 of the "Riviera delle Palme" stadium in San Benedetto del Tronto) through two probably less-known (at least abroad) but very nice central regions of Italy, Marche and Abruzzo. It's not actually bidding for a Senior Euro, but it's anyway something, for a start.
A bit random but it occured me, that it's pretty rare nowadays for players moving up the ranks in Serie W from bottom teams to top teams and even rarer for the moves to be succesful. The usual routine for young talents is to be loaned out to smaller clubs to grow, like Corelli, Beccari, Cantore etc ,but players starting in bottom ranked teams is low. I can only think of a few examples, the Empoli team, before it got defunct produced a lot of talent and the best examples of sucesfull "moving up the ranks" come from here, namely: Dompig -who does very well at Milan and Di Guglielmo who does well for Roma and the NT. Empoli btw produced a lot players who caught the eyes of top teams,but besides Dompig and Di Guglielmo they kinda failed, in Prugna's case I think it's bad luck with injuries, she's clearly a talented player. The most recent interesting transfer from bottom to top teams is Caroline Pleidrup from Sassuolo to Inter, but she hasn't really settled yet. I guess Oliveiro is worthy of a mention too, a she has moved up the rank from humble origings, among many clubs she actually made a stint at Empoli too!,to NT. Probablly there's more moves in the last years that I have forgot, but the pattern is quite clear. It's more common with players moving the other way, that the top teams sells their players to smaller clubs, like Bellucci from Juve to ,in the end, Napoli and Pettenuzzo from Roma to , thru Sampdoria, Napoli. In my view it's kinda sad that so few talented players are produced among the bottom half teams,but I guess it's understandable and in some ways positive, cause in the top teams player recieva a good education and play with the best. .It is sad though that a well functioning club like Empoli folded. I wonder what they did right or if it was just sheer luck, but they stood out. I hope for more success stories of players moving up the ranks, cause I think it's a positive thing if players feel they can achieve anything no matter where they start.
Back from the USA and to the domestic League. Milan have beaten Napoli by 2-0 with two goals in the 2nd Half, that were scored at both ends of the age-spectrum, since the first one was by today's captain, 30 yo Scottish MF Christy Grimshaw (back to the team in this season after a long injury-absence last year), while the second one, that closed the game later in additional time, was by 18 yo Ghanian-Italian Karen Appiah, a recent addition from Milan's youth team. In between, a possible Red Card to Angelica Soffia was reversed by the VAR, since she actually had apparently touched the ball. With this win, Milan caught up with Napoli at the 3rd place (although they could be both passed by Como and Fiorentina tomorrow). Roma-Juventus: independent from the final score of the game, it's good news that Barbara Bonansea is back from the injury that had prevented her from taking part to the USA trip. Anyway, the top-clash ended in a 1-1 draw: Roma scored in the 1st Half with an impressive middle-range scorcher by Valentina Bergamaschi, while Juventus equalized in the 2nd Half with a stubborn Emma Stølen Godø's action in the box that was finalized by Tatiana Pinto. Chances by both sides and in general an entertaining game. The scores: Napoli 0-2 Milan Roma 1-1 Juventus The highlights:
Soffia very lucky as she hit the opponent after her contact with the ball (it's still DOGSO for me as she didn't kick the ball away with her contact).
Tomorrow is an holyday in Italy, so just three matches were played today: the last one of the whole match-day will be played tomorrow. Inter easily dispatched Genoa with a round 5-0 score. Tessa Wullaert opened and closed the game with her personal brace: in between there were the goals by Henrietta Csiszár, Maša Tomašević and Marija Milinković. Funny moment when, after the first goal, Beatrice Merlo protested with team-mate Tessa Wullaert that the ball would have gone in goal even without her deflection (stolen goal! ). Inter trying to climb back to the top positions, but it will be hard. Fiorentina also had an home game vs a newly promoted team, but their win vs Ternana was much less smooth. Actually they had scored very early with Iris Omarsdottir and they had dominated the 1st Half, but they couldn't convert any of the subsequent chances, including a shot by the same young Norwegian striker that crashed on the crossbar (also, the visitors' GK, Gloria Ciccioli, admittedly made some more than decent saves). In the 2nd Half, Ternana had some good actions, especially with their young talent Giada Pellegrino Cimò, but the key-moment was when they were given a PK in the first minute of additional time. Valeria Pirone, though, who so far had been excellent for her team in this season, sent her shot high over the crossbar. So Ternana remain last-placed, while Fiorentina manage to successfully defend their position from Milan's and Inter's assaults. Finally, in a foggy evening in Parma, Como, after a quite boring rest of the game, suddenly found a goal by Danish MF Mathilde Kruse at 85' that gave them three crucial point, since the results from yesterday (Napoli's loss and the draw between Roma and Juventus) mean that the club from the lake is back at 2nd-place: what an incredible season they're having! Today's matches: Inter 5-0 Genoa Fiorentina 1-0 Ternana Parma 0-1 Como Today's highlights:
Where was Alisha Lehmann? In the long journey of the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Flame, which since November 26 has been traveling through Greece and Italy, touching all 110 provinces of our country, F.C. Como Women is proud to announce that Alisha Lehmann, forward for Como Women, has been selected as an official torchbearer in the relay that will lead the Olympic Torch to the Opening Ceremony on February 6 at San Siro Stadium. “I am truly proud to be able to carry the Olympic Flame for the most important sporting event in the world” - said the player -“It is a huge honour for me".