Italy 0-0 Denmark, FT. With this score, Italy haven't lost the chance to win the group, but of course Denmark have kept their huge advantage. If the score could be decided with the numer of CKs, we would have squarely won (4 to 11, if I haven't lost count of any). There should be a rule that if a team wins at least 10 CKs, they should get a goal. Actually we hadn't many clear cut chances, after the ones from the 1st Half, and we quite poorly wasted two FKs from a good position in this 2nd Half. For the rest, Denmark defended with at least 8 players and there was a virtual wall covering their goal from any danger. A draw isn't so bad in a vacuum, but we should have actually won our home game vs Denmark earlier this year.
The League is back, after the NT break. The first match of today was a not particularly eventful clash between Como and Parma. The host team went ahead in the middle of the 2nd Half with Nadine Nischler, who caught Camelia Ceasar in no-man's land and punished her with a lob, but the visitors equalized soon after with Manon Uffren. Nothing to write home about, actually. The second match was quite the upset instead, since one-to-last-placed Sassuolo went winning an away game vs Lazio by 0-3! An early PK perfectly converted by Lana Clelland of course allowed Sassuolo to play the game they want, but they anyway always looked more dangerous than Lazio, thus adding two other goals to the score, with Naomi Eto in the 1st Half and with Kassandra Missipo in the 2nd Half. Lazio never found a way back into the game and Martina Piemonte's late Red Card for dissent clearly shows how nervous they were. A few weeks ago, Lazio could look like a contender for the 3rd place; now... not so much. Juventus-Roma was a very important game, both for the title race and for the fight for the 3rd place: in the end a goal by Giulia Dragoni was enough to decide it, despite many other interesting actions by both sides (Juventus had a goal disallowed, probably for a foul by Amalie Vangsgaard, and hit the crossbar with Barbara Bonansea; Roma had two good chances to double the score, with Evelyne Viens and Manuela Giugliano, but GK Larissa Rusek was up to the task both times). I have to say that once again Amalie Vangsgaard looked like a big disappointment in front of the goal. In the last three match-days of the league, Roma will meet the three currently last-placed teams: Ternana at home, Sassuolo away and Genoa at home. Meanwhile Inter will have to face Milan, Juventus and Como. Although Roma haven't won the title yet, it's difficult to imagine a different outcome, after today's win. Finally, the big match for the challenge to the 3rd place, Milan-Napoli, ended in an unexciting 0-0 draw. Napoli had arguably more chances, since Milan's Defenders had to save on the goal-line multiple times, but in the end, despite Napoli's efforts (in particular with Cecilie Fløe) the score didn't change. Both teams have gained one point over Juventus, but they would have actually needed a win, since there aren't many other games remained to close the gap! Next week, though, Napoli-Juventus can be an actual decider for this run (Milan, meanwhile, will play the derby vs Inter). Recap of the scores: Como 1-1 Parma Lazio 0-3 Sassuolo Juventus 0-1 Roma Milan 0-0 Napoli Highlights:
Three goals were scored in the first of today's matches and all three were from a CK-action. In the 1st Half if was Genoa who hit first with Birta Georgsdóttir; in the 2nd Half, Inter answered with a brace by Marija Ana Milinković. With today's win (combined with Juventus' loss and Milan's and Napoli's draw from yesterday) Inter has secured a spot in next season's Champions' League (and they're very close to secure the 2nd place also, since only Juventus can catch them right now but they currently are 8 points behind). Roma remain 6 points ahead, so the title is just their to lose (they should lose two games out of three vs Ternana, Sassuolo and Genoa to just finish level with Inter, but that wouldn't even be enough since Roma won both games vs Inter with an aggregate score of 4-0: so, basically, for Inter to win the title, Roma will have to make just one point in the next three games! ). The Moreno Gubbiotti stadium in Narni, home of Ternana (with the unmistakable buildings surrounding it) is not an easy field to conquer: today, the home team even went ahead by 2-0, with an early PK that was converted by the usual penatly-taker and top-scorer of the team Valeria Pirone and with a goal that was scored soon after by Alice Regazzoli. In the reminder of the match, good old Katja Schroffenegger made some outstanding saves, but in the end Ternana were beaten by something they have looked unable to properly defend throughout the whole season: Corner-Kicks. Thus two headers, one at the end of the 1st Half by 18 yo Maya Cherubini (I guess it was her first in Serie A Femminile) and one in the 2nd Half by Maria Luisa Filangeri, were enough for Fiorentina to equalize the score. This point is anyway useful to Ternana who are now at +5 over Genoa. It doesn't seem to mean much for Fiorentina instead, who look now stuck in the middle of the rankings. Scores of today: Genoa 1-2 Inter Ternana 2-2 Fiorentina Highlights of today: The standings with three match-days to go : 1.Roma 46 37-19 2.Inter 40 45-20 3.Juventus 32 24-13 4.Napoli 30 27-21 5.Milan 29 28-23 6.Lazio 27 25-27 7.Fiorentina 27 27-27 8.Como 26 21-21 9.Parma 16 13-22 10.Sassuolo 16 16-30 11.Ternana 14 18-36 12.Genoa 9 16-38 Lazio are currently ahead of Fiorentina, having beaten them by 3-0 in the first round: the other match between the two teams will be played on the last match-day of this season, on the 17th of May. Parma-Sassuolo are level with the direct clash (2-1 for Parma in the first round, 1-0 for Sassuolo in the 2nd round), so Parma are ahead because of their better goal difference (-9 to -14).
Kinda indicitative game the Juve vs Roma game of the season. Roma had all the flow, while Juve just couldn't score, depsite many chances and also a very dubious disallowed goal must be said. Now it will be nervous for Juve, while Roma for sure are champions.. For me this season has been about Juve squander the momentum they'd build up last season, mostly by selling Cantore, but also buying tons of foreigners of questionable quality, and then Roma capitalizing on that. Now Roma got 3 golds, , from 4 years, but I think this are their least impressive winning team. Will be interesting to see if any team can build up there team and not lose key-players next season. It feels that italian teams are stuck on a certain level..Can Roma for example keep Dragoni, who's grown a lot this season? Can they add another element? Ofc Roma can still improve on some available players, like getting Corelli and Pilgrim back as well as Viens can probably have a better next season.
The big match of today was Napoli-Juventus, a veritable decider for the third Champions' League's spot that's offered by Serie A Femminile. The 1st Half was brimming with thrilling: twice Juventus went ahead with two mistakes by Napoli's GK Beatrice Beretta, when early in the game Lindsey Thomas surprised her with a "shross" that turned into a lob and when later she passed the ball on Ana Capeta's feet for the easiest tap-in, but twice Napoli managed to equalize, with their two most representative strikers, Marija Banušić first and Cecilie Fløe for the 2-2. On the long distance, though, the experience was key and Juventus managed to close the game in the 2nd Half, with just 10 mnutes to go, with Paulina Krumbiegel. Now Juventus have a 5 points adantage over Napoli with two match-days to go: it's all theirs to lose. Sassuolo-Genoa was a 0-0 without much thrilling instead. Nothing to see here except that Sassuolo, having kept their 7 points advantage over the last-place, have officially avoided relegation. Since just one team will be relegated this season, the fight is now between Ternana and Genoa, but the former, although losing today, have a 4 points advantage over the latter. As we were saying, Ternana have lost the match of the evening and the winners of that match were Roma, who have thus clinched their third Italian title (in the last four seasons), since Inter can't catch with them anymore, having lost the direct clash vs them earlier in the season. The PK that was given to Roma in the 1st Half had been saved by Katja Schroffenegger, but, after the VAR call by Roma's bench, it's been re-taken (not sure if it was a Ternana's player entering the box or, most likely, the GK leaving her line early) and this time captain Manuela Giugliano converted it. Later, in the second life, what's maybe the only real top-player who has remained in this winner-team scored her persnal brace (after Evelyne Viens had missed a sitter by sending the ball on the post). Roma hasn't been convincing all the time this season and especially in Europe they showed all of their shortcomings, but they sure were dominant on the domestic scene and they won some key-matches, allowing them to deservedly reach the title with two match-days to go. I anyway got the feeling that they're going to need some reinforcements this summer if they really want to be competitive in next year's Champions' League. Finally, a goal by Haley Bugeja in the 1st half was enough for Inter to win the derby vs Milan (a Red Card to Marija Ana Milinković at 88' for a foul of Chanté Dompig, who had hit the crossbar earlier, happened too late to actually impact the score) and to secure the 2nd place, although they have lost any hope to reach Roma and to win the title. Milan are now 6 points behind Juventus, but since they've won both direct clashes vs them this season, they can still hope to make 6 points in the next two match-days while Juventus make 0 (of course with Napoli meanwhile not making more than 4 points). It's anyway a lifeline, although it needs Juventus to lose both with Inter and Parma. Scores of today: Napoli 2-3 Juventus Sassuolo 0-0 Genoa Roma 2-0 Ternana Inter 1-0 Milan Highlights of today:
No false hope. The Milan attack is not good enough (7 of 13 matches this year without a goal scored) They shouldn't have sold Ijeh.
She hasn't scored for North Carolina Courage yet so maybe it wasn't a good decision also for her to leave Milan.
In the first match of today, the hosts of Parma went ahead early with a goal by Cecilia Prugna. Lazio, though, equalized in the 1st Half with Margherita Monnecchi taking advantage of a defensive blunder and then, in the 2nd Half, secured the win with two other goals by "speedy" Noemi Visentin and by always eager Elisabetta Oliviero. The loss keeps Parma in danger (they're still just 6 points ahead of Genoa and the direct clashes were a draw and a Genoa's win, so they're not safe from relegation yet), while Lazio catch up with Napoli at the 4th place, 5 points behind Juventus: the 3rd place is quite far, but they're not cut off yet. Finally, Fiorentina-Como sure wasn't a match to write home about. It was finally decided by a VAR-reviewed handball that led to a late PK: Sofie Bredgaard converted the kick from the mark and Fiorentina joined Napoli and Lazio at the 4th-place. Juventus keep having four rivals for the Champions' League, but a win at the last match-day vs Parma should be enough to shrug them all off. Matches from today: Parma 1-3 Lazio Fiorentina 1-0 Como Highlights from today: The standings with two match-days to go (the Champions' League granting 3rd place and the relegaton granting last place keep being undecided) : 1.Roma 49 39-19 2.Inter 43 46-20 3.Juventus 35 27-15 4.Napoli 30 29-24 5.Lazio 30 28-28 6.Fiorentina 30 28-27 7.Milan 29 28-24 8.Como 26 21-22 9.Sassuolo 17 16-30 10.Parma 16 14-25 11.Ternana 14 18-38 12.Genoa 10 16-38 I am not diving into the intricacies of the mini-league between Napoli, Lazio and Fiorentina to see who is ahead of whom. I'll only care about that at the last match-day, if they'll actually end up being level (and possibily being level with Juventus too).
Juve wins head-to-head against every team that has 30 points ( 5 wins 1 draw) so a draw is enough for third place.
In other news, in the night between Satruday and Sunday (at least referring to Italian time), Sofia Cantore contributed to a Washington Spirit's away win by 2-4 vs Orlando Pride with an early brace. I am not sure why that game is the only one from this week-end whose highlights are not available on NWSL's YouTube page. Anyway I found a good long video of Sofia Cantore's second goal of the night. For the first one, instead, I've only found this badly cut Instagram feed so far. Since her second goal was scored at 6', it looks like it was the fastest brace in NWSL's (short) history. Yesterday, instead, Arianna Caruso and her Bayern side were eliminated from the UEFA Champions' League in the semifinals.
For some reasons, the highlights of Orlando Pride-Washington Spirit were published today only. So, finally, Sofia Cantore's early brace can be seen by all angles:
Just two games were played today. The first one, Como-Napoli, ended in a 0-0 draw, but one can't say that the two teams didn't try their best to win instead: apart from the goal that was disallowed in the 1st Half (an header by Como's Lithuanian MF Liucija Vaitukaitytė) there were several saves by the Goalkeepers (who were both Italian), Napoli's Beatrice Beretta and especially Como's Astrid Gilardi, who, despite her team's mediocre season, grew a lot in the last year. Let's hope that the muscle-injury that forced her to be subbed-out with 10 minutes to go won't prevent her to answer to National Team's likely call-up for the last games of the WWC qualifier. Anyway, her young replacement, another Italian GK,19 yo Giulia Ruma, had the time to save a FK too. With today's result Napoli have lost any chance to catch up with Juventus at the 3d place, since the bianconere have 35 points and Napoli can only get to 34 points with a win in the last match-day. But there are other teams who can still chase Juventus. One of them is Fiorentina. They had gone behind early in Genoa, who had scored with Alma Hilaj, but they managed to equalize in the 1st Half with Sofie Bredgaard and then in the 2nd Half they went ahead with Ilse van der Zanden and with Iris Omarsdottir; the late goal by Alice Söndergaard for Genoa didn't change the final result (in additional time, Fiorentina scored another goal that was of course disallowed since it had been scored directly from kick-off! ). Genoa now can't catch up with Parma or with Ternana anymore, so they're officialy the team that will be relegated to Serie B at the end of this season. Fiorentina, instead, to get the 3rd place, will have to win next week vs Lazio and hope for the best (id est, the worse for Juventus ). Today's scores: Como 0-0 Napoli Genoa 2-3 Fiorentina Today's highlights:
In other news, Arianna Caruso, who is Champion of Germany with Bayern München, opened the score today in the one-to-last match-day of Frauen-Bundesliga, in an home match vs 1.FFC Eintracht Frankfurt :