If you had asked SiberianThunderT it would not have been necessary to say this. The boss's reaction to an incredible achievement!#ASRomaWomen #ASRoma #UWCL pic.twitter.com/B9ZObJHa7J— AS Roma Women 🇮🇹 (@ASRomaWomen) December 17, 2022 Maybe he meant the first Italian team as a debutant in quarterfinals?
It's more likely that he didn't have the slightest idea and he thought: "Hey, come on, how much frequent can this achievement have been? We're probably first!".
What can anyway be seen as a glorious 2022-2023 WCL's group stage for the Italian teams (whose ride will lead to the third Champions' League's spot for Italy starting from next season and qualifying for 2024-2025 competition) has finished this week. Juventus are out, despite just one loss in the group (as many as Arsenal and OL, but these ones have also beaten each other in the process) and never losing to the reigning champions of OL: they bow graciously and anyway had the merit to keep the qualification on the line until the last match-day, that was not a given in a group with two so powerful teams (although hindered by many injuries) as Arsenal and OL. Roma, instead, advanced to the quarter-finals as the 2nd-place team in their group, so they will meet one of Arsenal, Chelsea or Barcelona: the latter one is probably the most "unplayable" of the lot, but it's anyway likely that Roma will go out against an English team as well. They sure had the luck of getting the easiest of the 4 groups, but they passed it brilliantly, scoring a lot of goals in the process (only the group-winners of the 4 groups scored more than them) and showcasing some impressive performances by players as Manuela Giugliano, Emilie Haavi and Valentina Giacinti between others. However the knock-out stage will go, it's anyway the biggest success that a debutant could dream of. As for these latest matches, Juventus' one in Lyon from Wednesdey was quite uneventful; Joe Montemurro had checked Lineeth Beerensteyn's conditions with the medical staff and decided he could start her: she looked indeed less explosive than in the previous matches, but she anyway was probably the single most dangerous player in her team, the only one giving the impression that she could have created something (on the Italian media, it's been said that a foul on her that led to a FK from the edge of the box in 2nd Half had actually been started in the box and that, if there had been a VAR at group stage, it would have turned it to a PK: not completely sold on that , but it's anyway a testament to the quickness and smartness of Beerensteyn's movements). Juventus was basically toothless: the only half-chance of the match was a Cristiana Girelli's back-heel from a CK-action that somehow reminded my of Homare Sawa's flick in 2011 WWC's final (but it hadn't the same result! ). On the other hand, Pauline Peyraud-Magnin had to make two excellent saves in 2nd Half on shots by Eugénie Le Sommer and Delphine Cascarino, but apart from that OL wasn't particulary dangerous either. The 0-0 was basically a fair result and most probably Juventus should have managed to win one of the home clashes vs OL itself and Arsenal, where they had 1-1 draws vs teams on their lowest form because of the countless injuries. Yesterday, instead, Roma cruised comfortably in Prague vs Slavia, despite Alessandro Spugna resting a lot of players (after all, the qualification had been already secured and it's not like anyone was really believing that Wolfsburg could have dropped points vs St.Pölten, that was indeed bashed by 2-8 ; also, 1st-place in the group didn't mean much anyway, since clashing vs Arsenal or Chelsea is not necessarily much worse than crossing paths with Bayern München or PSG ). Roma even started 16 yo Slovenian talent Zara Kramzar (who had already debuted for some minutes in a previous game and who somehow impressed in yesterday's match for her solidness) and, in the last minutes, gifted two other 18 yo youngsters, Anastasia Ferrara and their other Slovenian Nina Kajzba (who was back from a bad injury), their debut in Champions' League. Two goals in 1st Half and one at the beginning of the 2nd were enough to file away the match: the most brilliant action was the one of the opener, actually a quick counterattack set up by Manuela Giugliano, who found Benedetta Glionna on the Right-Side (where she was basically free to roam all night); this last one delivered a good cross in the box, that led to a Sophie Román Haug's perfect volley-assist for Valentina Giacinti, who hooked the ball and sent it in the low-left corner of the net. The other two goals were from set pieces: a Beata Kollmats' header from a CK-action (after Giacinti had just hit the post in the previous action) and an Elena Linari's volley from a FK-assist. Excellent 2022 from Roma who won the second trophy of their history (Supercoppa Italiana vs Juventus), are leading Serie A Femminile, are in the quarter-finals of UEFA WCL and only need a draw vs Como on the 8th of January 2023 to also advance to the quarter.finals of Coppa Italia. Not half-bad. Highlights of the matches:
That action is not actually shown in highlights and I have to warn you, guys, that I made a mistake: it was obviously in the 1st Half of the match (when Juventus was attacking from the right of the screen to the left), not in the 2nd, but I catched my typo when it was too late to edit my previous message: for whoever could be instrested, the action started at about 37':15" of the match (about 45:30" of the full-match video).
While waiting for Serie A Femminile to resume next week, Coppa Italia's matches to define the quarter-finals of the tournament are underway. These are the results from yesterday (I won't post highlights; the advancing teams in bold): Como 1-1 Roma San Marino Academy 0-3 Sampdoria Chievoverona 2-1 Sassuolo A Roma with a lot of young and second-string players had a hardest time than expected to get rid of a good Como (who scored first with excellent U-19 Chiara Beccari, before Roma equalized one minute later with Emilie Haavi), but in the end they made it (since they had two results out of three available to advance), so the real upset of the day was Chievoverona, a Serie B's team, elimintating Serie A's Sassuolo. The other 5 matches are scheduled for today: Brescia-Juventus Parma-Inter Verona-Fiorentina Lazio-Milan Napoli-Pomigliano Meanwhile, Serie A's clubs are finalizing their winter-market: there were a lot of rumours, but few actual operations were completed so far; between them there are the movements from some young talents who hadn't found enough playing time so far in their respective clubs, in particular two players from Juventus' youth acadamy, 21 yo Asia Bragonzi, who was on loan to Sassuolo and now officially signed with Pomigliano, and 19 yo Nicole Arcangeli (who did wonders last year with U-19 National Team), who passed directly from Juventus (that had aggregated her to the Senior Team but coudn't give her much playing time, even less now that they're out of the Champions' League) to Parma. Other operations actually consisted in "just" contract's extensions: coach Alessandro Spugna, after his wonderful achievements from this first half of the season and especially the clear identity he gave to the team, signed for Roma until 2024. Milan secured another young player (that they had already signed, but for this season only), 21 yo Dutch Chanté Dompig (who had been named Serie A's best young player of 2021-2022 season), until 2025: these days, she's back from her longtime ACL injury and she will probably soon be ready to give her contribution to the team. Most probably, Milan wanted to be sure about her recovery before offering her a contract's extension, so it looks like she's now ready to be back on the pitch. Finally, the clubs are scouting the international scene (Scandinavia in particular) to find some significant names to add to their roster. Pauline Hammarlund to Fiorentina is now official and it's the only actually finalized transfer of this kind. As @Bauser mentioned on the Norway thread, Lisa Naalsund most probably declined Roma's offer and accepted Manchester United's one instead. Roma's insterest is now rumoured to have moved on Swedish Alva Selerud (who anyway plays a quite different role) and it looks like she already said good-bye to her current team Linköping, although she didn't disclose where she's going to transfer to yet. Roma already have a quite large contingent of Swedes in their team (Emma Lind, Beata Kollmats, Elin Landström, Stéphanie Öhrström), so we're going to see if they'll add Selerud to that number.
These are today's results (advancing teams in bold): Brescia 1-4 Juventus Parma 1-1 Inter Verona 0-4 Fiorentina Lazio 0-7 Milan Napoli 1-1 Pomigliano Basically, no upsets today: all of Serie A's teams advanced, except Parma who were paired with Inter. Inter and Pomigliano, though, who were going to advance with a draw but would have been eliminated with a loss, sure didn't have a cakewalk: Inter probably had some heartache-moments when Parma equalized the score with Marija Banusic at 89', while, in the Napoli's derby, Pomigliano only equalized at 73', with a PK by Verena Amorim, the goal that had been scored at 24' by Napoli's Elisa Del Estal. Other notable observations include the fact that Juventus started 18 yo Elisa Pfattner and she even opened the score at 13'! Pauline Hammerlund debuted for Fiorentina in the 2nd Half (when the score already was on 0-3), but she didn't score instead According to the FIGC website, the parings for the quarter-finals should be. Juventus-Chievoverona Inter-Sampdoria Milan-Fiorentina Roma-Pomigliano 1st legs to be played on 24th and 25th of January, 2nd legs on 7th and 8th of February.
I don't think Naalsund ever declined Roma. Most likely it was her club Brann which declined Roma's bid because the transfer fee offered was too low. Now I read Brann have agreed terms with Manchester United regarding Naalsund, but she is reluctant to move. Going to a new club in a new country in the middle of the season is always difficult and there is risk of ending up on the bench. Naalsund has the World Cup as a big target after missing the Euros last summer due to injury in the last warm-up match. Hege Riise has made it clear she does not prefer bench warmers. Naalsund might want to stay in Brann for now. It's fascinating to see the avalanche of players leaving Scandinavia now, many of them to Italy. A ground-breaking transfer winter. Last one out, turn off the lights.
Despite the fact that Serie A Femminile was scheduled to resume today, many teams were still busy finalizing their last signings in this last week, and some of them are still looking around for some missing pieces (the winter market will go on until the end of January). Roma indeed signed Swede Alva Selerud: she should be an alternative to Emilie Haavi on the left wing, but she's said to have played as a dynamic left-back also. We're going to see where, when, how and how often she will be used. Another relevant trasfer was DF Linda Tucceri Cimini from Milan to Fiorentina. She's said to have been sidelined by coach Maurizio Ganz after she had insisted on taking a PK over Milan's first-choice of penalty taker and missed it. After that, she basically didn't find anymore playing time, so she was soemhow forced to leave the team. It's not the first time Ganz clashes with some players, and it all ends with those players leaving Milan (Valentina Giacinti and Vero Boquete come to mind from last season ). Can really Milan afford that? Anyway, despite the need to replace Tucceri Cimini, Milan's last signings were two young offensive players, whose quality I can't really assess: 19 yo MF Nesrine Bahlouli comes from Olympique Lyonnais, and this looks like a good review in itself, but, despite the many injuries OL suffered in the last months, I don't remember having seen her play. The other name is Finnish 18 yo Oona Sevenius. I actually don't think any of them will have an immediate impact on Milan's Senior Team. Finally, last-placed Parma is desperately trying to shore up their roster and signed Icelandic Margrét Árnadóttir (not sure if she's in any way related to much more famous Guðný Árnadóttir, who plays in Milan ).
As I was mentioning, today the Italian league re-started with the first three matches of 13th match-day of the regular season. Como was particularly unlucky: most of their hopes were set on the talent of 19 yo Chiara Beccari, but she suffered a tibia's fracture in last week's Coppa Italia's match and she will be out for at least two months: maybe Como will have her back for at least a part of the play-out pool, but they will have to do without her in these last 6 matches of the regular season (Beccari could have even had a shot at being called to the Senior National Team for the World Cup, but now it does seem less likely). Without their main offensive weapon, the team lost today a crucial home-match vs Pomigliano. The match was decided by an action at the end of 1st Half, when young GK Beatrice Beretta (who had made some excellent saves before that) touched the ball with her arm outside of the box and was consequently sent off. Como didn't have Mária Korenčiová available today and had to sent in their 3rd GK, 16 yo Giulia Ruma. Pomigliano scored from the subsequent FK from the edge of the box with Veronica Battelani (it was very well taken, young Ruma wasn't actually at fault for that and she made some good saves in 2nd Half). Como, despite being 10 vs 11, even had the chance to equalize with a FK from a similar position in 2nd Half, but Norwegian Camilla Linberg's shot crashed on the crossbar! Of course it wasn't Como's day and with this loss Pomigliano left them 3 points behind in the rankings. Inter-Sampdoria was actually much less-contested: it was basically one-way traffic and Inter easily scored two goals in each half to make it 4-0. Sampdoria can't really do better these days: they are plagued by key-injuries and the club, in financial crisis, can't really give the team much help with the winter market. At this rate, a team that had won their first three matches of the season could seriously risk being relegated, if last-placed Parma somehow manage to get their act together. Everything went smooth for Inter today instead: of course the main star was, as usual, Tabitha Chawinga, with an assist and a goal, but all of the players did well, in particular the scorers: Elisa Polli, who forced an header in with her physical prowess to open the score, Ghoutia Karchouni, who finished a Chawinga-Polli triangle-action, and even 19 yo DF Chiara Robustellini, at her first goal in Serie A. Only bad news for Inter are that Anja Sønstevold had to leave the pitch in tears after a bad-looking knee-injury: let's hope is not as serious as it looks... If the last match of the day had to tell if Fiorentina could be an actual contender for the title, the answer was resoundingly clear. it was a big no! Roma clobbered them (at home!) with a ruthless 7-1 win, and it can't be a case that Fiorentina had already lost to Milan with a similar score this season. They obviously aren't ready to fight the real top-teams of the league and the fact that Milica Mijatović was sent-off at the end of 1st Half for a bad-looking kick on Norma Cinotti's face can't be an excuse: Roma was on 0-2 already, at that point, and Alice Parisi's goal that for a short moment gave a false hope to Fiorentina at the beginning of 2nd Half was actually quite random and didn't change the inertia of the match at all. There were many brilliant players in Roma today: Andressa Alves with a brace (including the opener), Manuela Giugliano with a back-heel assist and the final seal, Emilie Haavi as the usual bullet-train on both wings (and as a scorer also), Giada Greggi and Norma Cinotti with good-directioned middle-range goals, heck even Valentina Giacinti, despite not scoring, was a deciding factor in most of her team's offensive actions. But if you want to ask me who impressed me the most, it has to be Slovenian baby-star Zara Kramžar (who just turned 17 on the 10th of this month): ok she entered on the pitch when the opponent team was down to 10 players and when her team was winning already by 1-4, but she only played 12 minutes and she managed to post one goal and two assists in this very short time: a fated one? These are the scores: Como 0-1 Pomigliano Inter 4-0 Sampdoria Fiorentina 1-7 Roma And these are the highlghts:
Today's results reinforce both the first and the last positions of the league: Roma leaves Juventus 5 points behind and Parma remain dead-last at 6. Milan squarely won by 2-0 a match with not much of an history: it's not that Parma didn't try, since Marija Banusic and especially Melania Martinovic were fairly dangerous in front of Milan's goal, but their defense (the worse of the league, with almost 3 goals against per game) allowed too many chances to the home team, and although some of them were badly wasted (or well saved by Alessia Capelletti), Martina Piemonte and Guðný Árnadóttir (this last one with an obvious deflection on her shot) buried theirs. If it wasn't for the play-out pool, I'd see Parma as good as already relegated. Milan remain on the wake of the top teams, but I frankly can't see them as actual title contenders. Sassuolo are slowly but steadily lifting themselves out of the bottom of the rankings: they managed to stop on a 1-1 draw a quite uninspired Juventus, who had almost managed to bank on a lonely middle-range shot by captain Cecilia Salvai, who scored the opener at the beginning of 2nd Half, but were catched at 90'+1' by 16 yo late sub Manuela Sciabica, at her first goal in Serie A. The fact that Sassuolo scored in additional time could sound lucky, but actually their offensive actions had been consistently good in the last half-hour of the game; and anyway it means something if, in the first leg of the league, they had lost a lot of points in the dying minutes of their matches, while right now is them coming back strong in the last actions. Also, looks like Giampiero Piovani was right when he said that he didn't want any new GK from the winter-market and that he was completely putting his trust in Isabella Kresche: in fact, the Austrian GK, who had been quite questionable at the beginning of the season and was back today from an injury, was excellent and gave a meaningful contribution in salvaging this precious point. Today's recap: Milan 2-0 Parma Juventus 1-1 Sassuolo Rankings after the 13th match-day (goal difference in brackets): Roma 33 (+22) Juventus 28 (+20) Inter 25 (+18) Fiorentina 25 (-1) Milan 22 (+5) Pomigliano 13 (-11) Sassuolo 11 (-5) Como 10 (-9) Sampdoria 10 (-15) Parma 6 (-24) highlights:
It would likely have been mentioned if they had the same father. Arni is not a rare name in Iceland. https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Árni https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_häufigsten_Vornamen_in_Island
Anyway, in the last part of the match, both Árnadóttirs were on the pitch at the same time in Milan-Parma. The related Arni-fathers could be proud of them. By the way, this reminds me of Arne Saknussemm, the imaginary Icelandic character from Jules Verne's "Journey to the center of the earth": I suppose the names Arne and Arni could be related.
Arne is a younger form of Arni but it seems to be rare in Iceland. https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Arne Why doesn`t these Icelandic character`s name end on -son ?
Not sure, we should have probably asked Jules Verne himself! It's anyway a character from XVI century: I am not sure if back then there existed different naming conventions in Iceland. Or maybe Verne just made it up without caring much about realism (although he was realistic enough to name him Arne ).
The patronymic names go back to Old Norse. Snorri Sturluson was the son of Sturla Tordsson and born in the 12th century. Verne may have been just transcribing to French by ear, so -son became -semm in a sort of telephone game. Arne sounds like a Danish version of Arni, pretty sure it's used more in Norwegian and Danish.
The winter-market keeps going on and it will until the end of January. Como, who already made a reputation for themselves this season for giving plenty of playing time to young talents (Beatrice Beretta, Matilde Pavan, Chiara Beccari) took 20 yo Full-Back Martina Zanoli on loan from Fiorentina, where she wasn't finding much space at the moment. She was an interesting prospect, before being out for a season with an ACL injury, and Como could be the right place to revive her career. Some interesting internationals from overseas also: Inter signed Danish Winger Frederikke Thøgersen, from Rosengård. But the most sensational signing was most probably Dutch Defender Aniek Nouwen, on loan to Milan from Chelsea! Other moves are rumoured to happen soon, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, two matches from the 14th match-day were played today. Sampdoria can't seem to stop their fall: last week they had lost in Milan to Inter by 4-0 and today they lost at home to the other team from Milan, with a similar score (0-3): they are starting to get back some of their longtime injured players (MF Cecilia Prugna, who recently recovered from an ACL injury and started today, FW Kelly Gago, who was subbed-in in 2nd Half after a long absence), but they anyway look weak, disjointed and even somehow depressed: at this rate, it's not impossible to imagine that even last-placed Parma can eventually catch up with them. The match didn't look overly complicated for Milan, who went ahead at 5' already, with a CK action finished by Polish DF Gosja Mesjasz; then a coolly converted PK by Kosovare Asllani in 1st Half and a goal by captain Valentina Bergamaschi at the end of the game, at 88', were enough to put the game to bed. Milan temporary caught up with Inter at 4th place, but Inter-Como, scheduled for tomorrow, could easily change that again. A FK from French veteran Laura Agard was enough for Fiorentina to beat Sassuolo by 0-1 in a quite tight away match, thus allowing them to keep their 3rd place in the rankings. They were missing Milica Mijatović, who was suspended for two matches for the kick in an opponent's face costing her a Red Card last week, but their new signings Pauline Hammarlund and Linda Tucceri Cimini were very active. Sassuolo's offense-line looked quite toothless, so Fiorentina managed to keep their advantage and to rebound from the humiliating 1-7 loss to Milan from last week. I keep thinking they are too weak with the top-teams of the league to actually compete for a Champions' League spot, but when they meet just average opponent they anyway look solid. On the other side, Sampdoria's loss means that this stumble at home shouldn't be too much costly to Sassuolo. Recap: Sampdoria 0-3 Milan Sassuolo 0-1 Fiorentina Highlights:
The two top-teams barely win a pair of grindy away matches and keep their pace. Inter, instead, miss a beat. In the 1st Half, Pomigliano-Juventus was all about two defensive gifts, the first by Cecilia Salvai, who let Zhanna Ferrario steal the ball to her and score with a nice lob, the second by Pomigliano's GK Sara Cetinja, who had until then well battled with Cristiana Girelli, but spilled a rebound that was exploited with a powerful header by Sofia Cantore. Then, in the 2nd Half, Juventus managed to unlock the match with a good assist by Julia Grosso finding Lineth Beerensteyn alone in the box and ready to convert (I couldn't see a replay from a good angle, but the edge-of-the-box line Beerensteyn were dancing onto suggests that she could have been kept on side by a DF who was in a similar position). It's more and more clear why young Canadian Julia Grosso is rumoured to being raising the interest of some big European clubs, but Juventus want to keep her with them at all costs. All the bottom-of-the-rankings teams are now fighting tooth and nail, in these last match-days of the regular season, but Juventus managed to gain three crucial points to keep Fiorentina at bay. In fact, in was even harder for Roma to win in Parma, despite the fact that this was a literal top vs bottom clash (Roma as the leaders of the rankings and Parma as the last-ranked team): some quite questionable referee's decisions were needed to set the final 2-3 score (a goal that had been scored by Parma's DF Erika Santoro in 1st Half but was disallowed, maybe for an off-side position , and a quite soft PK for Roma in 2nd half, that was given for an half-foul on Valentina Giacinti, most probably embellished, and was subsequently converted by Andressa Alves). It's not a case that, despite the fact that women's football supporters are normally very correct, the public in Parma can be heard in the highlights shouting chants against the referee ("Scemo! Scemo!"). The 1st Half, that had ended on a 2-2 score had anyway been very entertaining with Parma's Melania Martinovic scoring within the first 5 minutes of the game (6th goal in the league for her ), Emilie Haavi equalizing a few minutes later, Roma going ahead in the middle of the half with a back-heel goal by Valentina Giacinti, well-assisted by Benedetta Glionna, and finally Bianca Bardin setting the score level again a few minutes before HT. For Roma, the win was crucial to keep a 5 points cushion over Juventus; for Parma, it was one of the last chances to try to leave the last place (that will put the team at a significant disadvantage in the upcoming play-out pool). Finally, Como grabbed in Milan, vs Inter, the point that they would have probably deserved in the unlucky match from last week at home vs Pomigliano; they could have even won the match if the referee hadn't disallowed a goal to Vlada Kubassova in the 2nd Half for a non-existent off-side . Not a particular good day for referees in Serie A Femminile. Kubassova had also earlier exploited a defensive blunder by Anna Björk Kristjánsdóttir to assist Matilde Pavan for Como's opener (by the way, young Pavan is on loan to Como from Inter ). Inter had equalized quite soon with a combination by Tabitha Chawinga and Elisa Polli (who scored her 9th goal this season, just one goal behind Chawinga herself: two Inter's players leading the scorers' rankings ), but after that they slowly faded away from the game. The fact that Inter are the only top-team who didn't manage to win in this match-day, means that they lose 3rd place to Fiorentina. The matches: Pomigliano 1-2 Juventus Parma 2-3 Roma Inter 1-1 Como The rankings (with goal difference in brackets): Roma 36 (+23) Juventus 31 (+21) Fiorentina 28 (0) Inter 26 (+18) Milan 25 (+8) Pomigliano 13 (-12) Sassuolo 11 (-6) Como 11 (-9) Sampdoria 10 (-18) Parma 6 (-25) highlights:
Well, let's say at some cost. (By the way: I never had any sympathy for Juventus men's team and their ways; I mentioned multiple times that the fact that they entered women's football and that, at the time, they signed the best Italian players was disgraceful to me, because it somehow forced me to root on the international stage for a team that I would have never rooted for in men's football. In fact, I am very happy that Roma women's team seems now better than Juventus, so I can actually root for Roma both on the domestic stage and in the Champions' League! ).
mid-week Coppa Italia's round for 7 Serie A's teams out of 10 (and one lonely Serie B's team, Chievo Verona): the first leg of the quarter-finals of the competition were played today and I guess, at this level, it's worth that I start posting highlights (they'll appear at the end of this post ). The matches went more or less as expected. Roma actually went beyond expectations, virtually advancing to the semi-finals already (where they'll meet the team that will emerge the winner in the clash between Fiorentina and Milan), without even need of the 2nd leg, scheduled two weeks from today, since they won in Pomigliano by 1-8! Actually, after Roma had scored two goals in the first 6 minutes with Manuela Giugliano and Benedetta Glionna, the 1st Half had ended on "just" a 0-2 score. But in the 2nd Half the floodgates were opened, with Glionna completing a brace, followed in that by Andressa Alves and by 18 yo Nina Kajzba, who had already recently debuted in Champions' League and who showed today that Zara Kramžar isn't the only interesting young Slovenian in the team . The other lonely goal was scored by usual suspect Valentina Giacinti (although there was an obvious handball in the action). Pomigliano, who totally crashed out of the game in 2nd Half, was anyway gifted one goal by a ill-advised pass by Beata Kollmats; Asia Bragonzi was ready to exploit that mistake, and being clear-headed enough to do that despite being on a 0-8 score is maybe a sign that this FW could be a precious weapon in the league, when Pomigliano will have to battle to avoid relegation within teams that are actually within their reach. Fiorentina-Milan had ended with a 1-6 score in the league, at the end of November 2022; today's match was a much tighter affair. Fiorentina's GK Katja Schroffenegger sure contributed to keep it close with some excellent saves, but a draw wouldn't have been an unfair ending, especially considering the crossbar hit by recently-signed Pauline Hammerlund in the 2nd Half. It was Martina Piemonte, instead, who ended up deciding the match, well-assisted by a Guðný Árnadóttir's pinpoint FK. The 0-1 final score anyway means that the clash is still open: Fiorentina will have to win in Milan two weeks from now, but they're just one goal behind. In the 1st Half, Sampdoria-Inter was basically a monologue by the team from Milan, with Tabitha Chawinga overpowering the opponent defense as usual and exchanging assists with Ajara Njoya: these two and Tatiana Bonetti made it 0-3 at Half Time. Then coach Rita Guarino (maybe to show that Inter can deliver even without their Malawian star?) subbed-out Chawinga at HT: can it really be a coincidence that Sampdoria managed to score two goals in the 2nd Half, thus basically re-opening the two-legged clash? Sure, the goals by Elena Pisani and Bianca Fallico (especially this last one, scored at 91') were quite late and they needed some luck, but Inter anyway managed to complicate a qualification that had looked as well as sealed at the end of 1st Half already. The last match in the lower part of the bracket was Chievo Verona-Juventus: no-one expected a Serie B's team to pose any problem to Coppa Italia's title-holders, but Chievo anyway managed to keep the loss respectable. Juventus scored 3 goals in the 1st Half, with a brace by Cristiana Girelli (including a "double" bicycle kick, even from the ground, and a FK) and a PK caused by a foul on Lineth Beerensteyn and converted by Valentina Cernoia, but in the 2nd Half they were content with keeping control of the game. No-one sees how could they miss the semi-finals. Recap of the scores: Pomigliano 1-8 Roma Fiorentina 0-1 Milan Sampdoria 2-3 Inter Chievo Verona 0-3 Juventus Highlights:
In other news, Juventus signed 20 yo Swede FW Paulina Nyström. I don't know much about her, but it looks like Juventus are accurately scouting the Sweden's scene and Evelina Duljan's signing, at the beginning of this season, looked spot-on and suggested that they know what they're doing. So I expect this new youngster to be quite valuable as well.
The winter-market keeps being hot (ha-ha) in Serie A Femminile. This week, the biggest hits were Anahita Zamanian from Juventus to Fiorentina and Daniela Sabatino from Fiorentina to Sassuolo (it's a comeback, she had already played there a few seasons ago). Sassuolo also signed Midfielder Martina Brustia from Inter and Danish Forward (from Iranian descent) Dajan Hashemi. Young Paraguaian GK Soledad Belotto was most probably signed by Juventus for their youth team (she's 19), while Parma could make up for some of their longtime-injured players with their new signing, American FW Mia Elizabeth Corbin. The rumour, though, is that Parma are going to also sign excellent Spanish FW Paloma Lázaro, who can't seem to find enough playing-time in Roma and already said her goodbyes to the club (probably the arrival of Alva Selerud, who already debuted in Coppa Italia with an assist, was the last straw for Lázaro). We're going to see if the transfer will be soon made official. Meanwhile, two matches of the15th match-day of the regular season were played today and in the first one of them Anahita Zamanian already made her debut for Fiorentina, although just as a late sub. It was a very smooth game for the Viola, who won by 2-0 with a goal in each half, both (including a PK) scored by Hungarian FW Zsanett Kaján, who has now reached 5th place in the top-scorers' rankings with 7 goals, and it could have been more if Pomigliano's Serbian GK Sara Cetinja, excellent as ever, hadn't made some very good saves (she even went close to saving the PK). Very few offensive chances for Pomigliano, who will have to find elsewhere the points they need to remain above the relegation brawl. Milan's derby was a bloodbath for Milan AC, who lost by 1-4 to Inter: does anyone need to know who was the star of the game? Of course, it was Tabitha Chawinga, who reached 12 goals in the league with today's brace. But, all of the team looked well up to the task, starting with Ghoutia Karchouni, who assisted Irene Santi from CK for the header-goal after less then 2 minutes of the game and then scored herself in 2nd Half from a FK (this last one benefitted from a deflection of the wall, but Karchouni anyway confirmed today being a specialist of set pieces). I am aware that I repeat myself like a broken record, but no game better than today's one patently showed why Francesca Durante should by now be the starting GK in Italy's National Team over Laura Giuliani. Watching them in action in the same game was brutal: Giuliani looked shaky, insecure, sometimes ill-positioned, spilling the ball everywhere, whereas Durante made good saves making them look ordinary and extraordinary saves that were worth celebrating as goals (including saving a PK by Kosovare Asllani, not because it was particularly badly taken by the Swedish star, but because of a mix of confidence, reflex, elongation and power).If Milena Bertolini can't see, after today, that the pecking order in National Team needs to be reversed, then it means that she's too much committed to the "old guard" and that she needs to leave place to a different coach soon after the World Cup. Milan had won the last 4 matches before this one (including the Coppa Italia's one), but they were all against teams in the lower half of the rankings; when they have to take on a top-team, they mostly collapse (with a pair notable exceptions this season, vs Juventus and Fiorentina, but it's not enough to compete for the first two places). Only good sign both for Milan and for National Team is Martina Piemonte's good form (she scored Milan's lonely goal today with a good personal effort). Today's matches: Fiorentina 2-0 Pomigliano Milan 1-4 Inter Highlights:
There is no doubt who should be Italy`s goalkeeper No1! https://onefootball.com/de/video/laura-giuliani-ihre-besten-paraden-fuer-milan-35850164 https://www.facebook.com/fifawomens...laura-giuliani/2854696261442633/?locale=de_DE
Eh, eh, you like playing the contrarian, don't you? Most of the saves you show in these videos are from the WWC 2019, when Giuliani was at the top of her form (including the outstanding save vs Debinha in the match vs Brazil). 4 years later, she's not at the same level and she made too many mistakes and too few game-changing performances this season, both with club and with NT. Let's be blunt, if you'd only see the Milan-Inter highlights from today, who would look like the legitimate NT's Goalkeeper, from them?