At least,in the last two days, Italy's Youth Teams posted decent results in the respective Euro preliminary tournaments, with goal difference playing a role (positive of negative) in both. U-17 NT avoided being relegated in B league with a narrow loss to Switzerland that left them one goal ahead of Iceland in goal difference, in a difficult group that also included France (the other game played in the same day, France-Iceland, ended on a 6-4 score!!! ). U-19 NT qualified for the second phase as the second-placed team in the group, despite the final win vs Hungary, because Serbia, level with Italy at 7 points, had a better goal difference. In the group, Italy had wins by 3-1 and 2-1 vs Galles and Hungary and a 2-2 draw vs Serbia. The young star from the previous cycle, Chiara Beccari (currently at Como on loan from Juventus) scored a brace in the last match.
Firstly, I apologize for my embarassingly goofy mistake: of course I had actually looked at the TV-share of Italy-Brazil from 2019, at the WWC! Divide my data (percentage and viewers) by a factor of 10, and you will obtain something much closer to the actual viewing data of Italy-Brazil from last week. With that out of the way , let's talk about the league, that resumed today after the NT break. There were some remarkable results today, some of them being quite a statement and giving a better idea of the power rankings of this season in Serie A Femminile. The first match was actually the only close one of the day: Fiorentina managed to take three points home from Pomigliano, and they mostly have to thank Milica Mijatović, who scored their only goal, and GK Rachele Baldi, who made an outstanding save on a PK by Taty Sena. Actually Pomigliano's Serbian GK Sara Cetinja wasn't half-bad either and she confirmed her good moment of form, but her heroics get wasted if her team-mates can't score, so Pomigliano sadly remain last-placed at just 1 point. Fiorentina keep battling at the top and for some hours, before the end of the subsequent game of this match-day, they were even leading alone. But this was going to change after the Inter-Milan derby, that seemed to make clear that Inter can really challenge for the title this season and that Milan, despite their market-campaign, look like a middle-of-the-ranks team at best. There could be many individual performances to highlight in Inter, to explain their current form and position: Stefanie van der Gragt scoring her 2nd header from CK action of the season, by now a permanent weapon in Inter's arsenal; Elisa Polli scoring a brace and, with her total of 7 goals, leaving Cristiana Girelli behind at the top of the scorers' chart; Ghoutia Karchouni being her usual artist-self in the midfield. But there's a single name shining higher than any other in this team and it's Tabitha Chawinga: the Malawian striker posted one goal and two assists today and she looks like the single unstoppable threat that no team in Serie A (not even Juventus) have a serious plan against; she's the one making the difference right now, by far the most influential signing of this year not only for Inter, but for the whole league. Milan tried to remain in the game, but they were drifting away from it at HT already; it's difficult to say what exactly doesn't work, but if you remember, my loyal followers, I had early expressed the doubt that Milan's market campaign had signed very good players in a vacuum, but hadn't actually seemed to resolve the problems the team had shown in the previous season. It's still very possible that they can make 5th place (thus the title pool), but this game could have spelled the end of their hopes to be an actual title-contender. Today is the day when I want to brag for some of my pre-season predictions (you have to brag when you can, because you could end not having many chances to do that later! ); apart from my doubts about Milan's campaign,I was persuaded, at the beginning of the league, that, among the teams that were supposed to fight to avoid relegation, Como looked like a little gem, well-build with scarce means on the solid base of the group of players who had reached 1st place in Serie B (2nd Division), while Parma seemed to me patchy and suspect, despite the money injected by the new ownership. So I have to brag while I am in time (who knows? Como could anyway end being relegated at the end of the season and Parma finishing mid-table) for how Como had their first win of the season today by dismantling Parma with a resounding 4-1 score. In the process, they leapfrogged Parma in the rankings by 1 point, passing from last place to fourth-to-last place (Pomigliano's loss did help and Sassuolo have a tough game scheduled for tomorrow vs Roma). Many heros today: 18 yo old Matilde Pavan, who scored the opener after dribbling half opponent team; captain Giulia Rizzon who converted a PK on a 1-1 score; Estonian striker Vlada Kubassova who put the nail on the coffin; GK Mária Korenčiová who saved a PK in the final minutes. But to me the unsung hero is Greta Di Luzio: top-striker of Serie B last season with 18 goals, she didn't manage to score yet in Serie A: but today she posted two assists and I am quite sure that she's even more happy that they led to the win than she could have been for actually scoring. On Parma's side, what can you say? Valeria Pirone was signed and given the captain's armband to score, not to miss PKs and to still have 0 goals scored in 6 match-day, while collecting 4 Yellow Cards. Recap of today's matches: Pomigliano 0-1 Fiorentina Inter 4-0 Milan Como 4-1 Parma And highlights:
After today's matches, it looks quite clear that Serie A Femminile is split into three parts: the 4 actual contenders for the title, who seldom miss a beat and are only separated by a range of one or two points; the relegation brawl, with Como having now gained a little advantage over the rivals; and, in-between these two groups, the one formed by just Milan and Sampdoria, that will most probably fight until the end of the regular season for the 5th and last spot of the title pool. Roma showed their maturity in winning a match that in the previous seasons they would have most probably been unable to unlock. It's a shame for Sassuolo, who had one of their best games and would have deserved to score on multiple occasions, but in the end it was the heart of captain Elisa Bartoli making the difference, with her last-chance goal scored at 90'+2'! Most of Roma's injured players recovered for this game, not only Elisa Bartoli herself and Manuela Giugliano, who had both just skipped the last National Team's camp, but especially Elena Linari, who was back on the pitch today and played the whole game. Roma will need all of their players at their best fitness for the upcoming UEFA WCL's group stage campaign! Sampdoria was 1st-placed after three match-days: now, after six match-days, they lost all of the direct clashes vs potential rivals for the title pool (Inter, Milan and today Juventus); I guess this is their real dimension: floating mid-table and hoping for the best; maybe they'll manage to make the title pool, maybe not, but they shouldn't anyway run any realistic risk of being sucked into the relegation fight. They were even in the game for most of 1st Half, with Kelly Gago missing three good chances (and actually not being much to blame for these wasted shots, that weren't necesserily badly taken: she even hit the post with one of them). But in the end the power of Juventus' players, who ended scoring two goals per half, was too much for them. The whole bianconere team looked solid (and ready for the match vs Zürich in Champions' League): the players who sure deserve more praise are Swedish Amanda Nildén, who scored a brace (1st and 3rd goals), assisted the 2nd goal and hit a post (not bad for a Full-Back! ), and Barbara Bonansea, who showed she's back from her injury for good by scoring the 2nd goal with a wonderful volley lob! Today's matches: Sassuolo 0-1 Roma Sampdoria 0-4 Juventus Rankings (goal difference in brackets): Inter 16 (+16) Roma 15 (+10) Fiorentina 15 (+6) Juventus 14 (+14) Milan 9 (-1) Sampdoria 9 (-4) Como 4 (-7) Parma 3 (-15) Sassuolo 1 (-7) Pomigliano 1 (-12) The highlights:
I briefly commented on the Champions' League's games on the related thread, but it's worth posting a recap here. The bottom line is: despite not everything going completely smooth, both Italian teams have started the group stage in the best possible way, with a win. It obviously means different things for each team, but it's anyway a solid start and another step towards the "3-WCL-spots-for-Italy" achievement. Juventus' coach Joe Montemurro apparently shot himself in the foot, on Wednesday, by starting a team with Amanda Nildén and Valentina Cernoia as the forward-wingers despite having much more resonable choices on the bench as Agnese Bonfantini and Barbara Bonansea, who had just scored in the last league game after being back from an injury. I figure that maybe he was seeing the away match vs Zürich FC as the easiest one in this moment of the season (Juventus will face an away match vs Milan in the league this week-end and will clash with Olympique Lyonnais next week) and wanted to rest some players. Anyway, as soon as the line-up became more reasonable late in 2nd Half, with Arianna Caruso and Agnese Bonfantini replacing Amanda Nildén and Sophie Junge Pedersen at 67', Juventus scored. When, at 79', the last necessary change was made, with Valentina Cernoia being subbed-out and Barbara Bonansea coming in, this last one sealed the deal 5 minutes later. Nothing to write home about, but a good win nonetheless, although it was more than expected vs the weaker team of the group. OL's home loss by 1-5 to Arsenal opens up some interesting scenarios: can Juventus beat an OL that's severely hampered by a botload of key-injuries? We're going to see next week, I suppose. Highlights: Yesterday, Roma had their first group-stage match in their history and it was at home (although in Latina, because no stadium in Roma could host them! Their usual Tre Fontane venue wasn't up to the UEFA standards yet, despite repeated requests by AS Roma to the local administration and it was impossible to find any other solution, including the Olimpico where the men's team uses to play). It was a grinding match, made harder by Slavia Prague's physicality (they ended the match with 5 Yellow Cards, all well deserved for blunt tackles) and by Roma's solid but quite uninspired performance. Roma's players, who started with a 3-5-2 formation, patiently tried to unlock the Czech tight double-line of defense and had most of the possession, but they were quite cautious not to expose themselves to dangerous counterattacks. The game went on with not much thrilling and basically no more than one really good chance per side, until, at 62', Manuela Giugliano kicked an enlightening long ball on the Right-Side to put Emilie Haavi in motion. The Norwegian winger ran like hell to the box with the ball and lobbed the GK with an accurate shot; it would most probably had gone in anyway, despite a Slavia's DF's desperate effort, but Valentina Giacinti pushed it in for good on the goal line, so the goal has been given to her, but I basically see it as an Haavi's goal. That action was a sudden flash in a pretty boring game: after that, Roma changed their system into a 4-4-2 one to better defend the advantage, but they anyway went closer to double their advantage with counterattack-actions than the Czech team went close to equalize the game, despite their frantic efforts in the last minutes. It was a more than decent collective performance, but these three points have to be mostly credited to Giugliano, to Haavi and to GK Camelia Ceasar, who pushed the ball out of her goal at the end of 1st Half with an impressive reflex-save, that weighted as much as the goal on the final result. It was the best possible start of the group from Roma and a much more reassuring one than Juventus', since Slavia Prague were most probably Roma's main rivals for the second place in the group, that's what Roma have to aim for. Now they lead along with Wolfsburg (who of course have a better goal difference), while Slavia Prague and St.Pölten (Roma's next, not too much intimidating opponent) are at 0, id est Roma are at the moment very well poised to advance, since this direct clash was one of the key-matches of the group. Highlights:
Yes, and I thought the touch was actually unnecessary: there was no way Slavia's DF could have saved that ball, by then.
Some quite interesting results today, in the first two matches of 7th match-day of Serie A Femminile. I have to bite my tongue not to say "I told you so", but Parma looks like the worst team of the league right now: technically they're still ahead of Sassuolo (and they could very likely remain ahead, since Sassuolo have a very difficult match tomorrow vs Inter), but the win in the direct clash vs them gave them their only points so far and, since then, they've always looked disjointed, clumsy, without a clear plan (that, in my opinion, they hadn't in their market campaign either: just a random collection of talents). Today, they managed to give a lifeline to a team, Pomigliano, that, at least on paper, looked basically as hopeless as them, but that at least can count on some solid players: GK Sara Cetinja, midfield's spectacular Taty Sena, experienced Ana Lucía Martínez (all from abroad: Serbia, Brazil and Guatemala respectively; but Pomigiliano also have a quite solid base of Italian players, who can make these stars shine). Today even Polish CB Katarzyna Konat scored her first goal. With this away win, their first this season, Pomigliano go ahead of Parma by one point (4 to 3). Last season they avoided relegation by changing the coach three times along the season (from Tesse to Panico, back to Tesse and finally Panico again): once again president Raffaele Pipola sacked his coach Nicola Romaniello to sign Carlo Sanchez, who won today his debut match. Will this particular strategy pay once again for Pomigliano? We're going to see in the reminder of the league. But the sensation of this match-day sure has to be Milan's home win vs Juventus by 4-3. It's just the first loss by Juventus this season, but they had anyway looked shaky since the beginning. Joe Montemurro most probably decided to rest some players for the upcoming Champions' League game vs OL: 2nd GK Martina Aprile replaced Pauline Peyraud-Magnin (who had been hit in the game vs Zürich and didn't want to risk making her little injury worse), Lisa Boattin, Cristiana Girelli, Sarah Björk Gunnarsdóttir were benched. But it's not just a question of personnel: Juventus at times, looked physically weak and lacking concentration: the Champions' League's effort is clearly taking its toll. One could say that Juventus should better try to win that whole tournament, if they hope to compete in it again next year! Jokes apart, Italy won't get a third Champions' League berth until next season and this year I can't really see Inter and Roma drop many points (and Fiorentina and Milan are competing too): despite the chance given by the title pool later, after the regular season, I can easily see Juventus missing 2nd place. The game was a veritable show, although Milan never really seemed to risk losing control of it since the moment Kosovare Asllani (what a player!) capitalized on two defensive mistakes in just two minutes from her countrywoman Linda Sembrant and from Danish FB Matilde Lundorf to make it 2-0 at 25'. From then on, it was a back and forth thrilling, concluded by a brace by Cristiana Girelli from two crosses by Sarah Björk Gunnarsdóttir (Montemurro had finally decided to sub-in both), with the last goal scored at 90'+5', when the time for a miraculous comeback had already expired (in-between, two of the goals, Milan's 3rd by Martina Piemonte and the first one by Cristiana Girelli, had most probably been scored from an off-side position, but in the end in didn't really count). Can Milan build somethng from there? Not sure, too many ups and downs for them in this season. The real message from this match is actually Juventus' crisis. Scores from today: Parma 1-3 Pomigliano Milan 4-3 Juventus The highlights:
The title pool and the relegation pool seem better and better defined with each passing match-day: it looks like Milan, with yesterday's win vs Juventus, are clinging to the title-pool train, while Sampdoria, with today's loss, are losing grip. Roma, meanwhile, take the lead of the rankings, along with Fiorentina. There's no doubt that this year the Champions' League, quite uncharacteristically for Serie A Femminile, will have a significant impact on the run for the title: in-between the clashes vs Slavia Prague and Wolfsburg, Roma rested a lot of players and this most probably allowed Como to keep the 0-0 score until quite deep into 2nd Half (along with the impressive saves by 19 yo GK Beatrice Beretta, who today replaced Mária Korenčiová). But in the end coach Alessandro Spugna sent in at first Valentina Giacinti and Emilie Haavi at 55' and subsequently Elisa Bartoli and Giada Greggi at 62'. Como couldn't resist for much longer and Valentina Giaicinti scored the winner at 72'. Roma's maturity is shown by the fact that once again (as in the WCL match on Thursday) they manage to obtain three points with the minimum score: great teams have this knack. Como remain a nice little team; they will make points elsewhere. The team sharing the lead of the rankings with Roma is Fiorentina (and, as much as I use to brag for my good predictions, I have to once again admit that I had totaly failed to identify Firenze's team as the real deal ). Sampdoria had actually gone ahead early with French striker Kelly Gago and had kept their advantage for long, helped by an excellent performance by GK Amanda Tampieri (who had been probably highly motivated by the competition for a starting spot, since her team-mate Kirvil Odden Sundsfjord had been preferred to her in the last two matches). Two minutes, between 71' and 72', were anyway enough for Vero Boquete to change the game, since she scored with an header and assisted Milica Mijatovic with a perfect triangle action. Can Fiorentina aim to the title or to a Champions' League's berth? Only time will tell, but they are fully in the run. Sampdoria, instead, see the gap with the upper section of the rankings enlarge. Finally, if Roma and Fiorentina can top the rankings it's because Inter were stopped on a 1-1 draw in Sassuolo. Inter had even risked their first loss of the season, since Martina Tomaselli, just back from a long injury, had given the lead to the home team at the hour mark, but in the end, after a lot of woodwork hit by Inter's FWs all along the game, usual suspect Tabitha Chawinga saved the day at 90'+2' with her 6th goal of the season. It was years we weren't able to see a so interesting and highly contested women's league in Italy. The results: Roma 1-0 Como Fiorentina 2-1 Sampdoria Sassuolo 1-1 Inter The rankings (goal difference in brackets): Roma 18 (+11) Fiorentina 18 (+7) Inter 17 (+16) Juventus 14 (+13) Milan 12 (0) Sampdoria 9 (-5) Como 4 (-8) Pomigliano 4 (-10) Parma 3 (-17) Sassuolo 2 (-7) The highlights:
A due recap of the 2nd round of UEFA Women's Champions' League's for Italian teams: - on Wednesday, Roma had the craziest game on earth: dominating 1st half, with 11 shots and no less than 3-4 major chances, they ended up being 0-1 at Half-Time for an awkward PK caused by Moeka Minami in a basically harmless situation at the far corner of the box. Everyone expects a reaction from Roma in 2nd Half, and St.Pölten doubles the lead instead within the first two minutes on the pitch (from a collective blunder of Roma's defense, including once again Minami). Then, when deep into 2nd Half everything seemed lost, the incredible happens: within 13 minutes, from 75' to 87', Roma scores 4 back-to-back goals!!! Elena Linari smashes it in from a long elaborate action; one minute later, an handball gives a PK to Roma: Austrian GK deflects Andressa Alves' shot on the post, but Valentina Giacinti scores from the rebound; at 80' Manuela Giugliano bends St.Pölten's GK's hands with a powerful and accurate shot to make it 2-3; and finally subsitute Paloma Lázaro scores from another middle-range effort misjudged by the Goalkeeper. For additional drama, St.Pölten scored at 89', but three minutes of injury-time weren't enough to re-open the game. Roma showed their best and their worst in the same game: there were players having awesome performances, as Elena Linari, Manuela Giugliano and turbo-propelled winger Emilie Haavi , and other having poor ones (Moeka Minami, Andressa Alves); Roma scored 4 and performed a miraculous comeback, but the final shots' count was 35 to 11 , meaning that Roma only scores about one tenth of all of their shots. This percentage won't sure cut the mustard against teams allowing much less shots than St. Pölten (Wolfsburg, anyone? ) and it's basically Roma's main and recurring problem, since last season (last season, the goals weren't coming with time either, but the players keep being wasteful anyway). Despite all of the heartache, Roma are now in excellent shape to advance, since they lead at 6 points along with Wolfsburg, while the other teams in the group are at 0. Of course Wolfsburg (who are already ahead on goal difference) will be a completely different level of opponent, but the impression is that a team like Roma could do anything, from losing 0-4 to winning the big clash. the games vs Wolsfburg should be in any case quite entertaining to watch. Highlights: - Juventus' match vs a quite depleted OL on Thursday was less spectacular, but anyway interesting. Much less chances than in Roma's match and more like a chess contest. Juventus' conceded in the middle of 1st Half from a defensive blunder (with Cecilia Salvai and especially Pauline Peyraud-Magnin to blame) allowing Lindsay Horan to score. OL wasn't anyway giving the impression of dominating the game: they had a solid possession, but few actual offensive actions and, even when they had some, it was obvious Melvine Malard couldn't really make-up for absences like Ada Hegerberg's or Catarina Macario's ones. When, towards the end of 1st-Half, Olympique also lost Damaris Egurrola for a bad-looking injury (from the look of it, I supect ACL ), Juventus finally took courage and started putting some offensive actions together. This attitude had its peak a few minutes into 2nd Half, when Barbara Bonansea repeatedly dribbled Janice Cayman in the box and finally delivered a short low cross in the small box that was deflected in goal by Melvine Malard, apparently more good at scoring own-goals than at doing her job for her own-team. That score would stand until the final whistle. Now, of course a draw vs the title-holders is an excellent result in itself and leaves the chance to advance to the quarter-finals totally open, but playing at home vs a team so plagued by a boatload of injures in key-position (Amandine Henry even had to be started as a Center-Back and the bench was full of youngsters!) could have been the chance to dare something more than that. Juventus is now at 4 points and OL at 1, but this doesn't mean much, since at the next round OL are expected to comfortably beat Zürich, while Juventus could easily lose to Arsenal: if they'd manage to keep the score respectable, though, goal difference could still be on the Italian side, since OL would have not just to win but to actually bludgeon the Swiss side to make up for their 1-5 loss to Arsenal. All in all, Juventus' chances remain quite good; if Roma look like they almost made it to the quarters already, Juventus aren't in a similar position yet but they're anyway still solidly in the run. Highlights:
Meanwhile Italy NT scheduled two other friendlies to prepare for the World Cup. On the 11th of November at 17:50 CET Italy will play Austria in Lignano Sabbiadoro; four days later, on the 15th of November (20:00 CET) they will meet Northern Ireland in Belfast. If the Austria match looks about the expected level (Austria impressed at Euro 2022 and were probably easily available for this match after being eliminated from the World Cup), Northern Ireland's choice leaves something to be desired: Italy would need to challenge some higher-ranked team to get better. Anyway, I'll take it.
First two matches of 8th match-day of Serie A Femminile were played yesterday. Sorry for the delay in posting my comment, but I was waiting for the video-highlights to be uploaded on the usual YouTube channel and for some reason in didn't happen (I hope it isn't meant to be some kind of a permanent change ). So, I had to wait for the highlights to be posted on the single teams' YouTube channels: you'll have to deal with local commentators sounding depressed when their team lose or feeling elated for a win! Inter suffered their first loss of the season, showing that the team is not the same without Tabitha Chawinga (who picked-up an injury in warm-up and couldn't play). Of course, it's not just a question of missing their most reliable weapon: there is also a Roma's team who, instead of being tired from midweek's Champions' League's game, looks actually more and more enhanced with each win: they believe in themselves both on the European scene and on the domestic one, where they feel like it could be their year to finally win the title. The fact that they now have the depth that they had missed in previous seasons helps a lot. Having a super-duper Emilie Haavi, who looks able to break every game, helps too (a goal and an "assist" for her in this match, meaning that her shot crashing on the post was converted by excellent Annamaria Serturini from the rebound). I actually ran out of words to describe Haavi. The 1-2 final score is misleading: Inter's GK Francesca Durante kept the score respectable with some outstanding saves (I start hearing more and more what I was already saying since ages: based on performance alone, Durante should become National Team's first choice of GK these days over Laura Giuliani, who's just sputtering on lately) and Inter's goal was quite random (it was a Moeka Minami's own-goal, but it's not actually her fault since the ball just bounced off her keeping an opponent at bay while Camelia Ceasar was trying to kick it out of the goal; all-in-all Minami had a much better performance than on Wednesday in Austria). The win in this clash at the top means Roma have now carved a 4 points advantage over Inter, while waiting for Fiorentina's result vs Juventus later today: it's not unlikely that, by this evening, Roma could lead the league alone. Meanwhile, Milan can't seem to give any continuity to their efforts: from a 0-4 loss in the derby vs Inter two weeks ago to a 4-3 win vs Juventus last week, and now they lose a game at the last minute in Pomigliano, vs a team in good form but anyway battling to avoid relegation. Of course, the Red Card to Christie Grimshaw at 43' (for a silly quarrel with the referee ) changed the course of the game, but Maurizio Ganz and the players can't really hide behind a different excuse every day. This Milan needs something different. Meanwhile Pomigliano (who finally showed some different game-changers than usual suspect Taty Sena: in this case the other Brazilian Verena Amorim and late sub Debora Novellino) separated themselves from the bottom teams and climbed closer to Sampdoria, who could anyway keep their distance with a win vs Parma today (that would allow them to catch up again with Milan: the fight for the 5th place in the title pool is more open than it can seem at first sight). There's no doubt anyway that new coach Carlo Sanchez (actually a coaching duo, since he works along with Gerardo Alfano) shaked and revitalized Pomigliano's team, and it's probably not a case that many different players get now involved in their wins. Yesterday's recap: Inter 1-2 Roma Pomigliano 2-1 Milan The highlights:
Matches of today, at least in part, seemed to confirm some hierarchies as emerged from yesterday's ones. The first verdict is that Roma now lead alone. The second one is that Juventus caught up with Inter at 3rd place. Both verdicts came from Juventus-Fiorentina 2-0, a quite convincing testament from Joe Montemurro's side. The game was basically one-way traffic: Fiorentina was never actually dangerous and their GK Katja Schroffenegger made some very good saves that somehow kept her team in the game despite Juventus' dominance (her rival in Fiorentina, Rachele Baldi, is out for some time with an hand-fracture, but Schroffenegger showed that she can still be considered a National-Team-level Goalkeeper). On the other side, Lineth Beerensteyn (who dedicated her goal to her recently deceased mother) and Barbara Bonansea (who scored, hit the crossbar and had quite a number of dangerous shots and actions) had outstanding performances. Bonansea in particular confirmed the good impression she had left in the Champions' League's game: she keeps being the difference-maker in this team; since she came back from the injury that have left her out in the first part of the season, Juventus found that special, unpredictable quality that had made them a dominating force in Italy and a top 8 team in Europe. Despite the depth of Juventus' roster, I guess she's the only irreplaceable piece in it, a class of her own. Highly contested 2-2 draw in a key-match for the relegation-fight, Como-Sassuolo: an header at 90'+3' by Greta Di Luzio, the top-scorer of last year's 2nd Division, prevented Sassuolo from getting their first win of the season and from slightly shaking the rankings. Di Luzio had assisted her team-mates in the previous matches, but this is her first goal in Serie A. There were some interesting stories here: Como scoring both goals in a basically identical way, a FK from about 40 m turned into an assist by Swedish Julia Karlernäs' header (who served Vlada Kubassova in 1st Half and Di Luzio in the 2nd); Martina Tomaselli scoring her 2nd goal in two games for Sassuolo, after coming back from an year-long injury; NT member Maria Luisa Filangeri having an outstanding defensive performance and even scoring a goal from a FK-action, despite playing with a face-mask. In the end, a very entertaining game and both teams looked like they would deserve remaining in Serie A. Of course the score stings the most for Sassuolo, who remain last-placed with just 3 points, but at this rate they won't remain there for long. In 8 match-days of the season so far, Sampdoria-Parma has been the first 0-0 draw. Snooze-festival? Not really, actually both teams had their chances to open the score and GK Amanda Tampieri was particularly good for Sampdoria. The most interesting players for each side were most probably Marija Banusic for Parma, who despite being just back from a quite long injury showed glimpses of her class (that's much needed by her team right now), and Kelly Gago for Sampdoria, who is so powerful, fast and smart in creating chances that, if she could be as much able to convert them, she could remind of a Tabitha Chawinga's replica; since she mostly wastes all she creates, she remains just Kelly Gago. Neither team particularly liked this draw: Sampdoria failed to catch up with Milan at 5th place; Parma sadly remain one-to-last-placed despite having been up a player in the last half-hour, after Sampdoria's Sara Baldi had been sent off with a direct Red. Today's scores: Juventus 2-0 Fiorentina Como 2-2 Sassuolo Sampdoria 0-0 Parma New rankings (with goal difference in brackets): Roma 21 (+12) Fiorentina 18 (+5) Inter 17 (+15, 24 goals scored) Juventus 14 (+15, 23 goals scored) Milan 12 (-1) Sampdoria 10 (-5) Pomigliano 7 (-9) Como 5 (-8) Parma 4 (-17) Sassuolo 3 (-7) The highlights:
Yes, sorry : that's why I had added the goals scored, as the tie-breaker with Inter: you never check a text enough, before posting it. You had actually pointed out my mistake in time for me to correct it, but I missed it and now it's too late.
Parma sacked coach Fabio Ulderici (who had coached Empoli last season, leading them to a 9th place out of 12 teams). Solid rumours suggest that his replacement should be Domenico Panico, who coached Pomigliano in the final part of last season, reaching 8th place: in Parma, he would find some key-players from that team, Swedish Marija Banusic (just back from an injury) and Argentinian Dalila Ippólito (who's out injured since the beginning of the season).
This week-end, Serie A Femminile, as many other European leagues do, will stop for the FIFA International window, involving a set of friendly international matches. Meanwhile, some sparse news: - Domenico Panico has been indeed officialy appointed as Parma's new coach, after Fabio Ulderici was sacked earlier this week; - mid-week, a round of Coppa Italia's matches has been played, but I don't think it's worth to recap them entirely, since there weren't any upsets and all of the Serie A's teams have beaten the Serie B's teams. Some scores have been more spectacular than others, some players who seldom have the chance to shine in the league scored goals: if anyone is interested there are good recaps (in Italian) around, here for instance; - There were some injuries after the latest league's matches: some shouldn't been so serious, but will anyway prevent the players involved to be called to their respective National Teams (Sara Gama, again, for Juventus, Kosovare Asllani for Milan), some others are more worrying (Parma's captain Valeria Pirone will be out for two months with a muscle injury; Juventus' Amanda Nildén will have surgery for a fracture at the left foot); - On Saturday, the 5th of November, at 14:30 on Parma's neutral ground, the Supercoppa Femminile between Juventus (league's winner) and Roma (Coppa Italia's winner) will be played. It's basically the first trophy of the season and it will be very interesting to see if Roma, who look on a roll, will manage to beat Juventus.
I guess the list of the players called for Italy's upcoming friendly matches vs Austria and Northern Ireland deserves a post of its own, instead of being mixed with the sparse news. This is the list: Goalkeepers: Francesca Durante (Inter), Laura Giuliani (Milan), Katja Schroffenegger (Fiorentina); Defenders: Elisa Bartoli (Roma), Lisa Boattin (Juventus), Federica Cafferata (Fiorentina), Maria Luisa Filangeri (Sassuolo), Elena Linari (Roma), Cecilia Salvai (Juventus), Alice Tortelli (Fiorentina); Midfielders: Arianna Caruso (Juventus), Valentina Cernoia (Juventus), Aurora Galli (Everton), Manuela Giugliano (Roma), Benedetta Glionna (Roma), Giada Greggi (Roma), Martina Rosucci (Juventus), Annamaria Serturini (Roma), Flaminia Simonetti (Inter); Forwards: Barbara Bonansea (Juventus), Agnese Bonfantini (Juventus), Sofia Cantore (Juventus), Valentina Giacinti (Roma), Cristiana Girelli (Juventus), Elisa Polli (Inter). Apart from the comeback of some very important players who were injured the last time around vs Brazil (Elena Linari, Elisa Bartoli, Manuela Giugliano, Barbara Bonansea, Cristiana Girelli), I guess the most interesting piece of news is the comeback of Annamaria Serturini; if you want, it's a case that looks similar to Emilie Haavi's one: a fast and technical winger playing in Roma, who had been unreasonably left out of Euro 2022's roster and who kept being ignored for a pair of other camps after that; in the end, though, the level of the club's performance suggested she had to be called again. Of course there are also differences (Serturini is way younger than Haavi and she's arguably a much less dominant player), but it anyway was a funny coincidence that both her and Haavi were called back in their respective NTs at the same time.
The start of a new era in Italian women's football? After losing countless clashes vs Juventus in the latest years, Roma finally managed to win a match against then, if only at the penalty shootout. And it was a counting one, since there was a trophy at stake, the Supercoppa Femminile. It could be a sign that Roma, this season, is destined to beat Juventus in other competitions as well, league included. Or it could be just a coincidence and at the end of the season Juventus will reign again: only time will tell. But at least what we've seen today was something new and it could give a big boost in confidence to Roma's players. The match was an hard-fought one: Roma controlled the game for most of 1st Half, and scored at 19' with Valentina Giacinti changing an Emilie Haavi's shot into an assist for herself. Then, in 2nd Half it was mostly Juventus gaining the upper hand and they scored with a FK by specialist Lisa Boattin (who had already hit the crossbar in 1st Half, from FK also). Roma's GK, Rumenian international Camelia Ceasar was mislead in that circumstance (she had made a step ahead, thinking about coming out of her goal to intercept a potential cross, and, when she realized it was a direct shot instead, it was too late to jump back and save it, despite a desperate dive). She more than made up for that mistake in the reminder of the game, though, since she had at least two excellent saves, between regular time and extra time, and, especially, she saved two PKs in the penalty shootout, thus giving the victory to her team. The missed shots were actually quite badly taken, but her saves were anyway impressive and not trivial. It's interesting that there was a total of three misses out of 10 shots, and two of them were from the youngest players of the pitch, one per team, both 23 yo, Benedetta Glionna for Roma and Sofia Cantore for Juventus: they probably need some more experience to bear the pressure and to learn to slam it in like most of the veterans did in style. It's quite uncharacterstic, instead, that the other miss was by Cristiana Girelli: she had also missed a pair chances during the match that she would have normally converted in one of her best days. She started the season quite well, but lately she doesn't seem to deliver, and the team is obviously missing her contribute. It could be seen as a coincidence, but guess who scored the last penalty for Roma, before Camelia Ceasar saved Sofia Cantore's one? But Emilie Haavi, of course: the most usual match-winner for Roma these days. Enjoy the highlights:
Three injured players had to leave the NT camp: Alice Tortelli (Fiorentina), Giada Greggi (Roma), Agnese Bonfantini (Juventus). As far as I know, it's mostly minor muscle injury, but there is no doubt that there were a lot of them lately in Serie A, more than in previous seasons, I'd say. Did the new professional league put a new level of pressure on the players? Giada Greggi in particular had looked in good form, lately, both in the league games and in Champions' League, it's a shame not to see her play in NT: Anyway, Milena Bertolini just called two replacements (drawing them from the U-23 NT's pool, that played today a friendly match vs Portugal, wiining it by 1-0), Beatrice Merlo (inter) and Angelica Soffia (Milan), both basically able to cover both defensive and midfield positions.
In the late afternoon, Italy will play the first friendly match of this FIFA wndow vs Austria. It can be a good omen that two other Italian National Teams have won their respective friendly matches in the latest hours. Yesterday, U-23 Italy has won by 1-0 vs Portugal, with a late stunner by Valentina Gallazzi (Pomigliano) at 83' (see highlights below). Today, U-17 Italy has won by 3-2 (after being behind by 0-2), with a PK by Manuela Sciabica (Sassuolo) at 93', after Giada Pellegrino Cinò (Roma) and Vanessa Mutti (inter) had equalized the score (highlights not available yet).
A frankly bad-looking Italy team lost by 0-1 at home vs Austria yesterday. A draw wouldn't have been an unfair result for what's been seen on the pitch, but Italy's offense was toothless, defense was careless and the whole team was out of ideas. Decent debut as a starter by Francesca Durante, who, in my opinion, should become our first choice of GK over Laura Giuliani, but there's not much more to praise in yesterday's Italy team. Austria, despite missing the World Cup, are much better than their 19th place in FIFA rankings suggests, but the Italy seen in Lignano Sabbiadoro for this match won't go far in next year's competitition if they can't find a way to unlock similar matches. From time to time, it seemed to me to re-watch the team who crashed out of the Euro 2022 this summer: the same feeling of hopelessness, the same sensation that they could have gone on playing forever without finding a way to score, the same weaknesses in defense (in particular in properly sweeping the box when needed), the same lack of character. It makes sense that Milena Bertolini uses this kind of matches to try different tactical set-ups, but the 3-5-2 seen vs Austria seemed not to make much sense against that particular team and basically forced out of the game one of our best players, Barbara Bonansea. Combine that with the fact that a lot of our players had very questionable performances, including both the usually dependable ones as Lisa Boattin, and the more suspect ones as Maria Luisa Filangeri (it's not just the glaring mistake on the action of Austrian goal; Filangeri constantly looked insecure and inaccurate: ok, she was playing with a face-mask and an arm-bandage, but if she wasn't ok, better trying someone else), and you have the perfect recipe for a very sub-optimal performance. I am not optimistic about the development of this team: let's hope, at least, that they can beat Northern Irelend (35 positions behind them! ) in the upcoming next friendly. Highlights:
The less said about yesterday's friendly match vs Northern Ireland, the better. Ok, we had some injuries along the road to this match, that was scheduled at the end of this middle-of-the-season FIFA window when everyone was thinking at the upcoming league's and Champions' League games (Juventus and Roma are the core of the National Team), but Italy's performance was anyway frankly depressing. The veterans looked gassed and out of idea, the youngsters looked very sub-par by a technical, strategical and mental point of view, the coach looked like she didn't have a real plan and we've seen the same mistakes again and again. Outcome: a team 35 positions behind us in FIFA rankings beats us quite comfortably, and it could have easily been 2-0 instead of just 1-0 (Northern Ireland went closer to score again than Italy to equalize). This is the third 1-0 loss in a row for Italy, and each one vs weaker opposition (Brazil, then Austria, then Northern Ireland): if USWNT can be legtimately worried by three losses in a row, go figure what this can mean for Italy. I don't know exactly what to say, except that this team, at the moment, looks unable to beat anyone and that it looks like we're in for another exit at group stage: if there isn't some kind of radical change, WWC 2023 could end exactly as Euro 2022 did for us. We need better selection, some non-trivial strategic adjustments and getting back to a humble mindset: we're not there to break the world, we're there to work hard to advance from our group; it's not a given (and it shouldn't be for anyone: players, coach, media) that we manage to do that. To add up to the depressing start of the week for our women's teams, On Monday the U-23 team (anyway, the most brilliant lately) lost to England by 4-1 at the penalty shootout, after drawing 0-0 vs them (not sure why there was a penalty shootout: was it some kind of friendly tournament? ), while on Sunday the U-17 team, who had won their first friendly match vs Denmark by 3-2, lost the second one by 1-5. Highlights of the (sad) Senior Team's match:
Well, if Italy keep struggling like now, there must be some kind of debate about coach Bertolini's future, I presume? Change might be needed. Any successors in sight? What about Carolina Morace?
The debate is actually ongoing since the defeat at the Euros, but since Milena Bertolini was well on the way to qualify for the World Cup (and she actually did in September) and since she was anyway quite popular, she was basically given a pass until the World Cup itself. Now, at less than one year from the tournament, it seems quite late for a change of mind and for a change of coach, also considering that it doesn't look like the coach is the only problem for this group (where some historical names look well past their prime and the upcoming youngster don't seem at the same level, or at least not yet). Of course, there has been talking about possible different coaches and one of the names coming up is indeed Carolina Morace. Another one is Rita Guarino, who won 4 consecutive Italian titles with Juventus in the recent years and is now leading Inter: it's been said that her contract with Inter has a clause stating that she can only leave them if she receives an offer from the federation to coach the Senior National Team (and if that clause was needed, it surely means that FIGC had her name in mind and most probably had some informal contacts with her about the matter).
Back to the league, with the 9th match-day (last one of the 1st leg of the regular season ), after the end of the FIFA international window. The first teams playing were of course the ones having UEFA WCL's matches scheduled for next week. Roma opened the match-day at home vs Sampdoria: it basically was a monologue, with no significant chances for Genoa's team and with Roma playing quite smoothly except for their usual flaw of not being clinical enough in front of the goal (they hit some woodwork, while Sampdoria's GK Amanda Tampieri, maybe spurred by the rivalry with recent Norwegian signing Kirvil Odden Sundsfjord, had an excellent game despite the loss). Roma's coach Alessandro Spugna could afford resting some of the usual starters for most of the game (Emilie Haavi) of for all of the game (Camelia Ceasar, Elisa Bartoli, Carina Wenninger; Andressa Alves is actually still recovering from the ankle-injury she picked up in the Supercoppa final vs Juventus), to have them ready for the difficult mid-week Champions' League's game vs Wolfsburg, and anyway the goals finally came, towards the end of each half, with a PK by Manuela Giugliano and an header by Sophie Román Haug assisted by Giada Greggi. Roma comfortably keep the lead of Serie A Femminile, while Sampdoria, after three wins in the first three match-days of this season, are still stuck at 10 points after 9 match-days and will sure need a rebound in the 2nd leg of the league. In the other game played today, Parma was a few extra-minutes away from a sensational upset, since at 90' the score was 1-0 for them, from a 1st half's header by Melania Martinovic, criminally forgetten by her marker Matilde Lundorf (and kept on-side by two of her equally distracted team-mates ). Then, with two goals within 4 minutes of additional time, a scorcher from out of the box by Lisa Boattin at 90'+2' and a close-range shot by Sarah Björk Gunnarsdóttir assisted by a Cristiana Girelli's chest control at 90'+6', Juventus managed to magically reverse the score! After the game, the average viewer is surely trying to ponder if the fact that the bianconere were so close to lose to the one-to-last team of Serie A is a sure sign of their irreversible crisis, that will lead them to lose their title and maybe the Champions' League also, or if their reaction and final win were evidence of their character and resilience, that will maybe help them remain in the game vs the likes of OL and Arsenal also. After all, after Parma's advantage, Juventus dominated the match and had countless chances to score, most of them neutralized by oustanding Parma's GK Alessia Capelletti, who would sure deserve to be part of a better team (she just turned 24 last month and, after following her in the last two seasons, I dare to say that she could actually be National Team material, but I guess she'll sadly won't have any chance to achieve that if she doesn't get to be signed by a top club). It's very likely that, in this moment of the season, Juventus' players and management are mostly concentrated on the Champions' League's difficult challenge, but they anyway have to be careful not to lose contact with the top of the rankings in Italy, or they could end missing their Champions' League's spot for next season (for this season, Italy still just have 2 of them available ). New coach Domenico Panico sure somehow managed to make Parma a different team, but they'll have to try to pick up some points in other games. Today's games: Roma 2-0 Sampdoria Parma 1-2 Juventus Highlights: