Also Benedetta Glionna for Emilie Haavi at 77': Roma changed both wingers. Let's see if they manage to be dangerous.
It's a bit too early to make predictions.... but given how the situation is now, I'd say Roma quite realistically could target the top four finish, as long as they avoid Barca, Lyon or Chelsea in the quarterfinals.
As you correctly said, it's a bit too early for that. Also, winning the group would be key: if you remember, last season Roma lost to Wolfsburg, thus they finished second in their group, thus they've got Barça in the quarters! To have a shot at top 4, advancing is not enough. Advancing as 1st-placed in the group, that would most probably do the trick, but it's very early to say if it can be really done. Meanwhile, highlights of the game (in Italian):
Cross-posting from the Nadeshiko thread, 'cause I think the quote is very relevant for Italian League/Champions' League also. UEFA Women's Champions' League website reported this piece of an interview with Manuela Giugliano: Francesco Corda Reporting from Stadio Tre Fontane: More from Giugliano: "With Kumagai, we have more stability in midfield. She brought us something more, then the coach moved me further forward and it went well." I guess this is tactically very interesting: Manuela Giugliano was always a very technical-gifted midfielder, but she wasn't scoring so many goals in the previous seasons. In 2023-2024 she already has 3 goals in 8 games the domestic league and 2 in 2 games in the Champions' League, not an half-bad result for any player who's not strictly a striker. Saki Kumagai basically freed Giugliano from defensive duties and allowed her to move closer to the opponent goal and the outcome is there to see.
Everytime I see Manuela Giugliano doing something special, I can't help thinking at the first time I became aware of her existence and I saw her play, during U-17 WWC 2014 that was played in Costa Rica. It was almost 10 years ago and she was just 16, but you could already see she had something special. She scored 3 goals in 6 games at that tournament and Italy reached an unheard-of and yet-unmatched-at-all-levels 3rd place in the competition. That Italy youth team was brimming with talent; to name just a few of the members of that roster that are now still playing in Serie A Femminile or even overseas, along with Giugliano we had: Francesca Durante (now at Inter), Lisa Boattin (Juventus), Alice Tortelli (Fiorentina), Valentina Bergamaschi (Milan), Flaminia Simonetti (Inter), Gloria Marinelli (Milan), Annamaria Serturini (Roma), Marta Mascarello (Milan) and Martina Piemonte (Everton). Most of them were later capped with the Senior Team and some even became regular fixtures of it.
Back to the "excitment" of the domestic league (Roma's Champions' League game had thrice the number of goals of the two Serie A Femminile's matches of today combined ). Can I have back the three minutes of my life I spent on watching the highlights of Como-Pomigliano? Sure, an away 0-0 is everything Pomigliano could have hoped for from this game, but you could have legitimately expected a little more from Como, who had been so far the "revelation" of this league. They sure had a pair good chances, forcing a good save by Swiss GK Emilie Gavillet (who was debuting today for Pomigliano instead of Anna Buhigas, who had anyway looked good so far) and hitting a post at 88' with Julia Karlernäs (a former Häcken player, a club that's quite trending lately ), but that's it. Quite forgettable. Maybe the most interesting feature of today's Inter-Milan match was that it was played on the historical stage of Arena Civica, that was built under Napoleon in 1807, hosted basically anything in its history, from naval battles (!) to horse races, from Buffallo Bill's "Wild West Show" to rugby matches, from men's Serie A football matches of Inter and Milan in the '30s-'40s to track & field competitions and, now named after sport-journalist Gianni Brera, keeps being located downtown in one of the most central parks in Milan, Parco Sempione. It also hosted a lot of music concerts and, for records, i watched The Cure live there in 1989 . Living in Milan, I could have been tempted to go watching the game live myself, but I had already committed to other plans today: after watching highlights, I am quite glad I didn't pass this quite cold and windy afternoon of November on the standings of the Arena, since the show the two teams offered didn't seem very spectacular. Inter, anyway, who hit some woodwork and forced a pair good saves from Laura Giuliani in the 2nd Half (when I suspect that the direction of the wind could have gave them a marginal advantage ), probably deserved to finally score from a simple CK action converted in goal by a Michela Cambiaghi's header. It was the derby of fear, I suppose: no-one of the two teams from Milan could actually afford losing it, lest they were dropping even lower in the rankings in this already disappointing season for both. In the end, Rita Guarino's side managed to do something more and Milan's new coach Davide Corti, who had replaced Maurizio Ganz mid-week, couldn't actually invert Milan's trend. Oh, incidentally it looks like Francesca Durante somehow won the derby vs Laura Giuliani. Today's action: Como 0-0 Pomigliano Inter 1-0 Milan Highlights (somehow):
Meanwhile, the Nations' league is looming at the horizon and Italy's coach Andrea Soncin has called up the roster for the last two matches vs Spain and Switzerland, to be played on the 1st and on the 5th of December; nothing surprising, just some missing players who are now being stopped by current injuries (Barbara Bonansea, Cristiana Girelli) and some other who are back from previous injuries (Francesca Durante, Chiara Beccari, Martina Piemonte, Emma Severini, Annamaria Serturini, including Sofia Cantore and Michela Catena who had been forced to leave October's camp in advance). This is the complete list of the players: Goalkeepers: Rachele Baldi (Fiorentina), Francesca Durante (Inter), Laura Giuliani (Milan), Katja Schroffenegger (Fiorentina); Defenders: Elisa Bartoli (Roma), Valentina Bergamaschi (Milan), Lisa Boattin (Juventus), Lucia Di Guglielmo (Roma), Sara Gama (Juventus), Martina Lenzini (Juventus), Elena Linari (Roma), Cecilia Salvai (Juventus), Alice Tortelli (Fiorentina); Midfielders: Arianna Caruso (Juventus), Giulia Dragoni (Barcellona), Aurora Galli (Everton), Manuela Giugliano (Roma), Giada Greggi (Roma), Emma Severini (Fiorentina); Forwards: Chiara Beccari (Sassuolo), Agnese Bonfantini (Inter), Michela Cambiaghi (Inter), Sofia Cantore (Juventus), Michela Catena (Fiorentina), Valentina Giacinti (Roma), Benedetta Glionna (Roma), Martina Piemonte (Everton), Annamaria Serturini (Roma).
The first match of today was a very interesting one, since Fiorentina, on paper, looked like one of the few teams in the league who could have created some kind of problems to Roma. In fact, Italy's Champions, despite coming from the Champions' League's mid-week game vs Ajax, didn't rotate as many players as they use to do in the league matches: in the starting line-up, there were just Eseosa Aigbogun instead of Lucia Di Guglielmo and Benedetta Glionna instead of Évelyne Viens (who was precautionally rested on the bench because of the ankle-injury she had picked up in the final minutes of the Champions' League match); the only other difference, compared to Thursday's match, was Giada Greggi starting over Laura Feiersinger, but I actually consider that an upgrade. This is so true that is was indeed Giada Greggi who scored the opener with a left-footed scorcher. But, as a testement to how Fiorentina are indeed a dangerous team, the equalizer came soon after with a dogged personal action by Miriam Longo. In the 2nd Half, anyway, Roma attacked with energy and purpose and they finally broke the lock with Benedetta Glionna; in the end, the result seems fair, since Roma had been close to score more goals than just two: they had a post hit by Manuela Giugliano from FK, a shot slung on the crossbar by Saki Kumagai, a spectacular bicycle kick once again by Manuela Giugliano that was well saved by Rachele Baldi. Anyway, Fiorentina looked like a solid team, deserving their current position in the rankings, although they should have won today to have a shot at actually entering the title race: now they're 8 points behind Roma and 5 points behind Juventus; their focus have to become defending the 3rd place from Inter, approaching 3 points behind them. Roma keep their perfect record: only Juventus can somehow keep their pace. Talking about Juventus, their wins always look much less smooth and comfortable than Roma's, but in the end they keep winning anyway. This time, they had even gone behind early vs Napoli, who had scored their 3rd goal of the season with 20 yo Valentina Gallazzi. Before HT, though, Juventus had reversed the score already with a brace by Arianna Caruso (with the second goal scored from a PK that had been conquered by Lindsey Thomas). Napoli tried a desperate comeback in the 2nd Half (having just a few chances from set pieces to show for it, though) but in the last minute of additional time they even took the 3rd goal, scored by Lindsey Thomas, from a Lineth Beerensteyn's assist, in an action that had been smartly started by Lisa Boattin. Joe Montemurro's side keep following on Roma's heels; Napoli, still at 0 points, see their rivals in the relegation race slowly drift ahead. Sassuolo win an away match in Genoa vs Sampdoria with an unambiguous 0-4 score and leapfrog their opponent of today in the rankings, lifting themselves at 7th place, just one point behind Milan. The unexpected star of the day was Swedish FW (of Kosovare descent) Loreta Kullashi, who hadn't looked so brilliant in the previous displays, but today scored an hat-trick and made the assist for Lana Clelland's other goal . Her first goal was a simple tap-in from the rebound of a Caroline Pleidrup's FK, but she obviously built up confidence from that goal and looked unstoppable for the rest of the game. Today's matches: Roma 2-1 Fiorentina Napoli 1-3 Juventus Sampdoria 0-4 Sassuolo Updated rankings (with goal difference and goals scored in brackets) Roma 27 (+28, 33 goals scored) Juventus 24 (+18, 26 goals scored) Fiorentina 19 (+ 9, 16 goals scored) Inter 16 (-1, 11 goals scored) Como 14 (-5, 9 goals scored) Milan 9 (-1, 9 goals scored) Sassuolo 8 (-4, 10 goals scored) Sampdoria 7 (-13, 6 goals scored) Pomigliano 5 (-13, 8 goals scored) Napoli 0 (-18, 3 goals scored) Highlights of today's matches:
Actually, Karlenäs was only at Häcken a little over half a season. She came from Sevilla where she went after spending a number of seasons at Piteå. She was there when Piteå won the Damallsvenskan 2018, just one point ahead of Kopparbergs/Göteborg (now Häcken). I think she may have even won the most valuable player award that year. As for another former Häcken player, I haven't seen Pauline Hammarlund in Fiorentina's squad for awhile. Is she injured or what?
Thanks, I am not expert of the Damallsvenskan, I had just noticed that Como had signed her from Häcken, so I had (wrongly) assumed that she had been an high-profile player for that club in particular, where instead you say she was just a passer-by. I scanned all of my Italian sources, including the official website of Fiorentina itself, that normally has a reliable medical report both fot the men's team and for the women's team (for instance a recent foot-fracture for Stephanie Breitner was mentioned), but I didn't find any injury for Pauline Hammarlund. In fact she was last seen on the pitch at the beginning of November vs Milan (and she had scored a goal vs Pomigliano two weeks before that), then she wasn't even on the bench for about a month, but I couldn't find any disclosed reason for that. It's well possible that she suffered an injury that wasn't reported. Or I wonder if she couldn't be in the process of transferring to another club: Fiorentina, this season, have an overabundance of offensive players (Vero Boquete, Miriam Longo, Michela Catena, Milica Mijatović, Zsanett Kaján, Karen Lundin) and a new coach who's not afraid of making bold choices; it is very possible that Hammerlund is not finding the space she was expecting to get and she's thinking at leaving the club...
That's not to say Karlenäs wasn't a good player. I think she was recruited by Mats Gren, Kopparberg/Göteborg's manager when the team was taken over by Häcken and when he was replaced by Robert Vilahamn she simply didn't fit into the new manager's system. Same goes for Milica Mijatovic who's now doing really well at Fiorentina. Thanks for the info on Hammarlund!
Nothing you said seemed to imply she wasn't, despite not having been for long at Häcken. If anything, her role at Como in the last two seasons, where she quickly became a key-player, shows that she's quality. You're welcome, but consider that I couldn't give any actual "info", just speculation.
A muscle injury yesterday both for her and for Elisa Bartoli. They have been replaced with Roberta Aprile and Benedetta Orsi, the famous (own)-goal scorer, from the current Under-23 roster.
By the way, starting line-up of the game for Italy (direct streaming on RAI 2, most probably geo-blocked outside of Italy): GK: Giuliani; DF: Di Guglielmo, Lenzini, Linari, Boattin; MF: Bergamaschi, Caruso, Giugliano, Dragoni; FW: Cambiaghi, Giacinti. Should be a 4-4-2, but some website claims it's actually a 4-4-1-1, with Michela Cambiaghi on the wing and Giulia Dragoni as an advanced midfielder creating the link with Valentina Giacinti. We're going to see in about 45 minutes.
0-1 at 12' with Athenea Del Castillo. Italy are not playing bad per se, but there are too many unforced mistakes in defense. The action of the goal was anyway very smooth for Spain, nothing to complain from our defense in that action: they're just too much strong (and, of course, they are now dominating possession).
Spain 1-0 Italy at HT. It's a shame: Spain are dominant, but not so much that a draw could have looked out of reach, but it will be really difficult to equalize that early goal by Athenea (basically Italy had just one shot, that went high over the crossbar ).
57' and 2-1 for Italy!!!! Header from Michela Cambiaghi (who had decided the derby Inter-Milan last week-end with another header) from a pinpoint cross by Manuela Giugliano. Spain started making defensive mistakes like the ones Italy was making in the 1st Half.