An header by Lithuanian Liucija Vaitukaitytė from CK action was enough for Como to secure an away win in Genoa. This is the second consecutive win by the Larian team after the change of coach from Stefano Sottili to Paolo Tramezzani (it looks like it's working ). Meanwhile, Genoa, who had been beaten and passed by Ternana last week, sadly remain last-placed. A precious away draw for Parma vs Napoli. The home team had most of the chances (and basically any of their offensive action included the name of Cecilie Fløe in some part of it), but in the end it was Parma who scored the only goal of the match with Alexandra Kerr, although it was disallowed for off-side. With this draw, Parma catch up with Ternana at the one-to-last place (at least temporarily: they have to hope Ternana don't grab any points from their clash vs Juventus tomorrow), while Napoli would have needed a win to hope to challenge the top positions of the rankings, the ones who offer a Champions' League's berth: they now have to hope for some less-then-brillant scores up there (at least Roma and Inter will clash against each other, so at least one of them will necessarily lose points). It was a draw between Lazio and Milan also, but in this case there was no shortage of goals, and two of them came from Poland (hi, @Lechus7 ). It was Lazio going ahead first with an excellent action by Clarisse Le Bihan, but in the 2nd Half Milan not only equalized with recently signed Ewelina Kamczyk (at her second match and first goal for her new team) but they even went on a 2-1 score with Angelica Soffia a few minutes later. In the end was another Polish player (and former Milan's player!), Nikola Karczewska, who set the score on the final 2-2. Phew. It's a shame that, after such an entertaining match, this draw isn't much useful to any of the two teams. Today's recap: Genoa 0-1 Como Napoli 0-0 Parma Lazio 2-2 Milan Today's highlights:
With a win today in the direct clash vs Roma, Inter could have caught up with their rivals at the top of the chart, but the six-pointer went to the leader of the rankings instead, who have now made an enormous step forward in the race for the title. It was anyway an open match, that Roma managed to secure with just one goal, that was scored in the 1st Half by Evelyne Viens, who was barely on-side when she smashed in the rebound from a Giulia Dragoni's shot. It's interesting that Roma, who had just parted ways with Canadian MF Mia Pante (who was given on loan to Vancouver), have signed Hungarain MF Anna Csiki from Tottenham Hotspurs on the 2nd of February and had her as a starter today already. The market has been very active in Italy in this last pair of months. Ternana are having an excellent spell: last week they had beaten Genoa and they had gained two positions in the rankings in the process; today they even manage to stop Juventus on a 2-2 draw. When the bianconere had gone two goals ahead in the 1st Half, with Abi Brighton and with brilliant new signing Ana Capeta, it could have looked like the game had been already decided, but before HT Ternana was awarded a PK, that reliable Valeria Pirone converted by beating Larissa Rusek (the 21 yo Austrian GK, who had been recently signed by Juventus on the 24th of January, was a quite unexpected starter today). In the 2nd Half Juventus looked quite careless, while the home team kept pushing for the equalizer, until finally always excellent Giada Pellegrino Cimò managed to score that much sought-after goal. So Juventus further lose contact to Roma and fail to reinforce their 3rd-place, while Ternana manage to keep their one-point advantage over Parma. A frilly observation: I kind of hate the recent trend of having a song being played at the stadium each time the home team scores a goal (yes, I am an old grumpy guy who hates all of this modern non-sense ), but at least in Terni they had enough taste to choose The Queen's "Don't Stop me Now". Finally, Fiorentina managed to beat Sassuolo, despite the never-give-up attitude that the visitor team showcased. All of the 5 goals were scored in the 2nd Half: the first one was a juicy backheel flick by Emma Severini; less than 10 minutes later Sassuolo equalized with an header by Naomi Eto. Fiorentina subsequently went ahead by 2 goals, with a powerful low shot by Sofie Bredgaard and with a PK that was converted by Emma Severini, thus completing a brace. But Sassuolo managed to get a PK of their own for a foul on the "unspellable" Jacynta Galabadaarachchi (I had prayed, at the beginning of the season, not to need to write it down ever and all had gone smooth so far! ). Daniela Sabatino, at age 40 (and 8 months) scored the penalty and set the final score on 3-2. Today's matches: Inter 0-1 Roma Ternana 2-2 Juventus Fiorentina 3-2 Sassuolo Highlights: Rankings:: 1.Roma 36 29-14 2.Inter 30 33-15 3.Juventus 28 22-10 4.Napoli 25 21-17 5.Lazio 24 21-17 6.Fiorentina 24 23-22 7.Como 23 17-16 8.Milan 21 24-23 9.Sassuolo 12 12-23 10.Ternana 11 15-31 11.Parma 10 9-20 12.Genoa 7 13-31 Lazio are ahead of Fiorentina, since they have recently beaten them by 3-0 in January. Next week, Serie A Femminile will be on a break because the National Team will start the quaification process to Brazil 2027 WWC. I guess this deserves a short post of its own.
Italy will play the first two games of their qualification group to the next WWC at the beginning of March. Both games will be played at home: the one vs Sweden will take place in Reggio Calabria at 18:15 of Tuesday the 3rd of March, while the one vs Denmark will be played in Vicenza at 18:15 of Saturday the 7th of March. This is the roster that Andrea Soncin has called up: Goalkeepers: Rachele Baldi (Roma), Francesca Durante (Lazio), Laura Giuliani (Milan); Defenders: Valentina Bergamaschi (Roma), Lisa Boattin (Huston Dash), Federica D’Auria (Lazio), Lucia Di Guglielmo (Washington Spirit), Martina Lenzini (Juventus), Elena Linari (London City Lionesses), Elisabetta Oliviero (Lazio), Cecilia Salvai (Juventus), Angelica Soffia (Milan); Midfielders: Arianna Caruso (Bayern Monaco), Giulia Dragoni (Roma), Manuela Giugliano (Roma), Giada Greggi (Roma), Matilde Pavan (Como), Eva Schatzer (Juventus), Emma Severini (Fiorentina); Forwards: Chiara Beccari (Juventus), Barbara Bonansea (Juventus), Michela Cambiaghi (Juventus), Sofia Cantore (Washington Spirit), Cristiana Girelli (Juventus), Benedetta Glionna (Inter), Martina Piemonte (Lazio), Elisa Polli (Inter). Some players come and go, but no real surprises. Emma Severini and Barbara Bonansea, who were injured at the time of the last friendy tour in the USA, are back in the group. Some fringe players, who hadn't been called back then, get another chance (in particular Angelica Soffia, Benedetta Glionna and Elisa Polli). Actually, to me, the most notable detail is that I don't remember an Italy's roster from the past with so many players from clubs abroad (there are just 5 of them, you'll say, but it's anyway not the norm for our NT. Also consider that Cristiana Girelli could soon join them).
Oh, you're right! I rewatched the scene: the footing was clear, but the comment-guy misled me, because he mentioned the other one (that I won't mention again: I already did with no need: I won't persuade myself to write down that name again! ).
Agree no surprises really. Perhaps Napoli's Bellucci should've been tried. Napoli's been doing good and I like her game.. And the growing number of foreign clubs sure reflect both the stagnation of Serie A W and success at the euros. Most interesting is perhaps if Italy is going to start to replace the old guard, Girelli and Bonansea foremost. Do we think Italy will continue with Bonansea/Girelli at the next potential world cup? Perhaps it's time to try something new. Should be said Girelli wasn't a starter around the end of Bertolini and first period of Soncin, it was Giacinti who was the main woman, easy to she wasn't the undsputed nr 1.. Perhaps an attack with Dragoni/Beccari, Piemonte, Cantore is the one to go with for the future cup? Defence is also getting a bit old, but Salvai/Linari are still younger than Bonansea/Girelli and they are clear starters, not much competition.
How do you guys think Soncin will go with the starting-11 for the next game? I think he will go for the same squad and formation as against Norway in the euros, but perhaps swap Sevirini for Greggi. It would look like: Guliani-Linari, Salvai, DiGuglielmo-Bonansea, Greggi/Sevirini, Giugliano,Caruso-Cantore, Girelli Based on form and quality it should be Greggi ofcourse, who's in the Serie A W best 11 IMO, but she's often gets the short stick in the national team, probably mostly due to injuries, which has prevented her from getting continuity with the team. Else the big question is, as I said before, if Girelli and Bonansea are gonna play in 2 years. My guess is anyway that Soncin doesn't wanna change too much, he wanna put out a team that has delivered before and knows each others. My guess is that he will try Piemonte against Serbia and perhaps even Denmark and then hope she will proover herself and become the starter. I don't think Girelli and Bonansea will be starters next year, but we'll see..
Your line-up makes sense and I wouldn't change much. I wonder if Giulia Dragoni couldn't make a case for herself, since she's been quite good in the last Roma's matches. Also, Sofia Cantore is off-season with NWSL: I wonder how fit she really is at this moment (this, of course is true for all of NWSL's players but Lucia Di Guglielmo actually joined Washington Spirit after having played a good part of the season with Roma ).
Since Cantore is the MVP it would take very much for Soncin not to start her, but you may be right. Perhaps she only plays part of the game. Di Guglielmo could be swapped, their's a couple of wingers/wing backs available.. Agree about Dragoni, was thinking about her.. She's not really the same role as Bonansea is she? But Italy can ofcourse change the formation to fit her.. Beccari also seemed to be liked by Soncin, guess she's more a player reminding of Bonansea, speedier than Dragoni, but like Bonansea a questionable shot, unlike Dragoni- who shots very well. Dragoni would be an exciting choice I think and I think Soncin like her as well. I don't think he likes Piemonte that much , probably view her as to bad with the ball. But Martina is hard to ignore nowadays isn't she?
Meanwhile it's now official that Cristiana Girelli, despite re-signing with Juventus until June 2027, will be on loan to Bay FC, in NWSL, until August 2026 (at least at the moment). She was the player with the highest number of caps in the (admittedly short) history of Juventus Women and she has scored more than 150 goals with them. Despite these numbers, it was not a given that she was going to feel the need to openly justify her choice: she did, in a video, where she explained that (as I had figured) it was all about taking an opportunity that most probably wasn't going to be available again in this late part of her football-career.
Italy-Sweden for the WWC 2027 qualifier going to start in about 45 minutes. I'm going to follow the match on TV (RAI 2, most probably geo-blocked outside of Italy), so I won't probably interact much here. These are ayway the starting line-ups from UEFA's official website: ITALY: Giuliani; Lenzini, Linari, Di Guglielmo; Oliviero, Caruso, Giugliano, Severini, Bonansea; Cantore, Cambiaghi. SWEDEN: Falk, Lundqvist, Juntttila Nehlage, Andersson, Holmberg; Zigotti Olme, Asllani, Angeldahl; Jusu Bah, Schröder, Rytting Kaneryd. So no Cristiana Girelli starting (nor Giulia Dragoni or Chiara Beccari, for that matter); Michela Cambiaghi is not living out her best season so far, but she's kind of a lucky charm for Andrea Soncin and he probably thinks she's well-suited to face Sweden. The two teams have clashed umpteen times in the latest years, so they most probably know each other by heart (although I read some new/young names in the Swedish line-up ), so it will likely look like a very cautious strategy-contest, or at least that's what I envision. Looks like Italy start with a 3-5-2 line-up, but the composition on the midfield should make it quite easy to switch to a 5-3-2 or to a 4-4-2 defensively or to a 3-4-3 while in offense. I won't hold my breath for an Italy's win, but it should be a quite open match.
It's a shame, because the shot sure wasn'y irresistible and it's been basically the only shot on goal by both teams in this 1st Half. A 0-0 at HT would have probably been the most fair score. Italy actually played with a 4-3-3, but the FBs didn't push much because Sweden are very dangerous on the wings, especially the left one with Monica Jusu Bah (the action of the goals came from one of her counteless counterattack-runs). Italy had a short reaction and won three consecutive CKs in a few minutes around 30', but they never were actually dangerous. I am not sure how they could approach the 2nd Half or if there can be any sub who have the potential to change the course of this game. Sweden's back-line is quite unexperienced, but it doesn't matter if we aren't able to challenge them and if Sweden's pressing keep us away from their box.
It ends 0-1. Italy hit a post in the 2nd Half with a Michela Cambiaghi's header and had a pair other chances, but they didn't look well organized and suffered Swedish physical play. Cristiana Girelli and Giulia Dragoni were subbed in too late, at 83', while other earlier changes, as Martina Piemonte and Chiara Beccari were quite unconsequential. Giada Greggi looked better than Emma Severini, but it was anyway too little too late. The qualification campaign start on the wrong foot, since it will be difficult to reverse the score at Sweden's home, so at the moment the direct qualification's berth looks solidly in Sweden's hands.
Decent performance, bad result for Italy. Perhaps it's time to change some players. I've been critical of Piemonte, but she's been a goal machine for Lazio for 2 seasons, so perhaps it's time to start her and give her time to settle. I think Italy's biggest problem is that they can't keep up when the best teams drives up the tempo. Luckily for Italy, Sweden isn't USA and can't keep on going 90 minutes at max speed and tired in the 2nd and Itlay should've scored
I am not sure what's wrong with this YouTube video: apparently the audio is just random gibberish, although, if I switch the subtitles on, what's written down is a regular comment, that I anyway can't hear: can anyone explain? Anyway, these are the official highlights of the match: Edit: actually, if I run the video from the embedded window here, it works, but if I watch it on the YouTube channel page, the random gibberish starts: must be some automatic YouTube's tool that's been obnoxiously activated. How do you switch it off???
My 2 cents: Interesting match. Sweden had record young (for Sweden) back and front lines though JRK gave the front line a bit of seniority. But there was a huge amount of experience in the backbone of the team (the midfield) with Kosovari Asllani, Filippa Angeldahl och Julia Zigotti Olme. Sweden dominated the first half although they only had one shot on goal, a deflected shot that tricked Laura Giuliani - and that was the difference in the match. In the second half Italy took over completely and pressed Sweden lifting cross after cross into the penalty area. Italy became more and more irritated at the physical Swedish play (don't understand how Sweden got by with only one yellow card) and a frustrated Michela Cambiaghi should've gotten a red card after stomping on Elma Juntilla Nelhage's arm. Italy brought on Martina Piemonte around the 60 min mark, ostensibly to challenge the young Swedish centerbacks, but a towering Bella Andersson (183 cm) pretty much shut her down. However, Italy continued to pile on the pressure and perhaps with a few more minutes of extra time they might have equalized.
Agree Bella Andersson did it very well against Piemonte, perfect player to counter an amazon like Piemonte btw. Anyway I still think Italy could've put in more balls to Piemonte, especially when Girelli got in as well. Piemonte is not only quite tall but also very strong. From what I saw she mostly fought a bit up on the pitch with multiple strong swedes for the ball. Italy played it a bit too cute sometimes, when they had the pressure. Perhaps they thought that the swedes were too strong though, but then you don't put in Piemonte and Girelli if you don't think you can win the battle of the box.
Martina Piemonte is tall and strong, but she's too much nervous. It's too easy to trick her into turning her game into a fighting contest and forgetting to focusing on playing and scoring.
Haha, but maybe the solution is to give Le Bihan italian passport or something. But seriolusly I think she's a player you have to give time and trust for her to deliver. Her career shows if you give her a lot, she can give back a lot also, but she need to get trust and countinuity. Perhaps time is a luxury you don't get in the nationals though, it's very little time and the time is precious, every game. Anyway isn't this a problem with this league format, you can never relax and try new players. It's like you're playing euros all the time
The UEFA website gives these line-ups for the match that's going to start in about 45 minutes: Italy: Giuliani; Lenzini, Salvai, Linari, Oliviero; Caruso, Greggi, Giugliano; Dragoni, Piemonte, Bonansea. Denmark: Thisgaard; Svava, Sandbech, Boye Sørensen, Ballisager, Thøgersen; Kühl, Gejl, Bredgaard; Harder, Vangsgaard. The line-up is more similar to what we've seen in the latest part of the Sweden's match, with Giada Greggi, Giulia Dragoni and Martina Piemonte starting. Cristiana Girelli once again is on the bench: I do have to wonder if she's not 100% fit. Denmark's line-up seems close to their optimal one, isn't it? Let's hope that Amalie Vansgaard doesn't adjust her aim just for today! It's a fact that Italy need a win today, or the qualification could start becoming a quite hairy affair. I'll watch the game on TV and go out to dinner with friend soon after that, so I'll probably comment on the match tomorrow.