Not sure, I was also wondering. Maybe the coach's job was in line had he lost this game? I actually don't know.
Last match-day of the regular season between today and tomorrow: the teams in the title-pool and in the relegation-pool have been already defined and there's not much left to be decided ahead of the second phase of the league, apart from some relative positions that are anyway probably going to change back and forth during said second phase. Sassuolo-Sampdoria could have probably been more entertaining had Sampdoria kept any hope to catch up with their opponents of today at 5th-place; anyway it's difficult to imagine that the final result would have been much different, since Sassuolo definitely looked like the better team. Loreta Kullashi is a FW who can at times appear irritatingly wasteful but can look impressive instead in other moments; anyway, meeting Sampdoria seems to boost and motivate her beyond limits: in the first round she had scored an hat-trick vs them; today she opens the score with a curved shot after a spectacular dribbling in the box. 15 minutes later, an header by 38 yo Daniela Sabatino seals the deal. Being the 5th team in the title-pool is most probably the best achievement Sassuolo could ask from their season: now it's very difficult to imagine that they can grab one of the three Champions' League spots, but, hey, while they're at it, it's anyway worth a try, isn't it? Fiorentina are a good team and today they claim to have been denied a PK, but frankly Roma always looked superior well beyond the 1-0 score that determined their final win. The goal was scored by Manuela Giugliano (at her 7th in the league this season), but most of the praise have to go to the assist by Emilie Haavi, who was her usual devastating self on the Left-Wing (I shake my head at the thought that Norway NT's new coach didn't call her for the upcoming Nations' League's matches: why on earth no-one of her country's NT coaches seems to like her? ). Roma ends the regular season with a record of 17 wins and 1 loss out of 18 games . Who can challenge them? There is a whole title-pool to play, but their second consecutive title looks closer and closer. Results of today: Sassuolo 2-0 Sampdoria Fiorentina 0-1 Roma Highlights:
Unbelievable game between Pomigliano and Como, where the hosts have wasted any conceivable chance to leave the last place in the rankings to Napoli (who were going to lose, as easily predictable, vs Juventus later in the afternoon, so one single point would have been enough for Pomigliano). These are Pomigliano's self-inflicted wounds: 1) wasting an early 2-0 advantage (goals by Dalila Ippólito at 9' and captain Gaia Apicella at 18') ; 2) missing a PK in the 1st Half (with Nicole Arcangeli) who would have led them on a 3-0 score ; 3) after an incredible comeback by Como (who scored three goals in the 2nd Half in the same time Pomigliano had needed to score two in the 1st Half, with Melania Martinovic, captain Giulia Rizzon and Zsanett Kaján from PK) and a precious equalizer from FK action by Nicole Arcangeli (trying to make up for the missed PK in the 1st Half), taking an header-goal from CK action, once again from Melania Martinovic, at the last action of the match, at 90'+5'! By the way, judging by the highlights, it looks like, after the 3-3 equalizer, Pomigliano pushed again to try to win the game, while it would have been more reasonable to defend the draw, since Napoli wasn't supposed to win the away game vs Juventus. Well, anyway, Pomigliano's last game epitomize quite well the whole of their season: an half-decent attack but by far the worst defense of Serie A Femminile, with a total of 46 goals against in 18 games (2 and a half goals taken per game). As mentioned above, Napoli have lost vs Juventus: the score was 4-1. Juventus scored with an early PK by Cristiana Girelli, a goal by Julia Grosso and a brace by Lindsay Thomas; Napoli's goal was a PK at the literal last action of the game, at 90'+3', that was converted by Marija Banusic. Both Cristiana Girelli and Lindsay Thomas caught up with Vero Boquete at the top of the regular season's scorer's rankings, at an unusual low count of 8 goals (let's hope the 2nd phase of the league will give us some more prolific scorers ). Finally, the derby of Milan ends with a 2-1 win by Milan vs Inter. Actually, Inter scored first, but they did in their own goal, with Lisa Alborghetti. The second goal they conceded was almost as much awkward, since, after a Julie Piga's bicycle kick, Inter's GK Sara Cetinja, instead of saving, actually sent the ball bouncing off upcoming Andrea Stašková, who basically scored without any particular individual effort. Annamaria Serturini's nice goal at the end of the 1st Half (taking advantage of an Alia Guagni's defensive blunder) wasn't enough to change the inertia of the game. For records, with this loss Inter have lost the final 4th-place in the regular season's rankings to Sassuolo (details below, under the rankings ). Today's scores: Pomigliano 3-4 Como Juventus 4-1 Napoli Milan 2-1 Inter Final rankings of the regular season (goal difference and goals scored in brackets) Title Pool: Roma 51 (+40, 51 goals scored) Juventus 43 (+31, 47 goals scored) Fiorentina 39 (+17, 36 goals scored) Sassuolo 26 (0, 20 goals scored) Inter 26 (-1, 28 goals scored) Relegation Pool: Milan 21 (0, 22 goals scored) Como 21 (-13, 20 goals scored) Sampdoria 18 (-17, 12 goals scored) Napoli 6 (-25, 11 goals scored) Pomigliano 6 (-32, 14 goals scored) Since both Napoli and Pomigliano have lost their respective games, their situation keeps being defined by the direct clash favouring Napoli. Sassuolo and Inter are level in the direct clash instead (Inter won by 2-1 in the first round, Sassuolo won by 1-0 in the second round), so Sassuolo are ahead because of their goal difference that's better than Inter's one by a single goal (0 vs -1)! Highlights of today's games:
Pomigliano had 10 players in their own penalty area and the eleventh tried to block the corner. How could they have played more defensive when the goal happened? Also it's the last match of normal season and not of the complete season - 8 more matches to come. With three points for a win I think it's not the right tactic to play just for a draw at home against Como.
I was referring to the previous action, the one that originated that Corner Kick, when Pomigliano correctly had their 5 DFs in line but had anyway been caught unbalanced, with the defense-line completely disjointed from the midfield-line, to the point that Como had easily reached the box with a fast counterattack. No real harm in that action, apart from conceding a corner, but that corner ended up being fatal. You're right that being last or one-to-last going into the relegation-pool has basically no consequence, and, despite Como being in the relegation pool too, they're basically out of reach for Pomigliano, who had to only aim their run to the target of passing Napoli. Just for this reason, though, a last match-day of the regular season when they had a match where they could reasonably make some points, while Napoli had the virtually impossible task of doing the same vs Juventus, would have been a crucial chance to exploit. Como had looked nigh-unstoppable in the 2nd Half, but Pomigliano had anyway managed to equalize: one point would have anyway been precious, since Napoli and Pomigliano aren't realistically supposed (given the trend of the season) to make many points in the relegation-pool, apart from the direct clashes.
As everyone knows Italy, having finished at 2nd place in their Nations' League's group, don't have to play-off to remain in Nations' League A nor have to play the Olympic qualifier matches. Thus they used the international window to set up a friendly match vs Ireland, on Friday the 23th of February in Firenze (18:15 CET) and another one vs England on Tuesday the 27th of February in Algeciras, Spain (18:00 CET). These are the 32 players that have been called for these matches: Goalkeepers: Rachele Baldi (Fiorentina), Laura Giuliani (Milan), Katja Schroffenegger (Fiorentina), Amanda Tampieri (Sampdoria); Defenders: Elisa Bartoli (Roma), Valentina Bergamaschi (Milan), Lisa Boattin (Juventus), Aurora De Rita (Sampdoria), Lucia Di Guglielmo (Roma), Sara Gama (Juventus), Martina Lenzini (Juventus), Elena Linari (Roma), Elisabetta Oliviero (Sampdoria), Julie Piga (Milan), Cecilia Salvai (Juventus); Midfielders: Arianna Caruso (Juventus), Giulia Dragoni (Barcellona), Aurora Galli (Everton), Manuela Giugliano (Roma), Giada Greggi (Roma), Eva Schatzer (Sampdoria), Emma Severini (Fiorentina); Forwards: Barbara Bonansea (Juventus), Agnese Bonfantini (Inter), Michela Cambiaghi (Inter), Sofia Cantore (Juventus), Michela Catena (Fiorentina), Cristiana Girelli (Juventus), Benedetta Glionna (Roma), Miriam Longo (Fiorentina), Martina Piemonte (Everton), Annamaria Serturini (Inter). It's obvious that, if coach Andrea Soncin called so many players for this training camp in Coverciano, it's because he wants to give a good look both to longtime veterans (Barbara Bonansea and Cristiana Girelli, who are back in the group after previous injuries) and to some interesting new faces (Sampdoria's Aurora De Rita, Elisabetta Oliviero and GK Amanda Tampieri, who had indeed impressed in the last match-days of Serie A Femminile, at their first call; 19 yo Eva Schatzer, again from Sampdoria, and French-Italian Milan's DF Julie Piga, not at their first call, but anyway quite new). But the main story of this camp is that Sara Gama announced her retirement from the NT: the match vs Ireland will be her 140th and last cap, after an impressive career that started on 17th of June of 2006 vs Ukraine, for what concerns her debut with the Senior Team, and even earlier for Italy's youth teams. She's 35 yo and she wasn't even a lock-up starter anymore in her club, Juventus, so it make sense that she leaves the NT on her own terms, and fully supported by the federation and the coach. It's anyway clear that she meant much more to Italian women's football than just her sport-value: she was a groundbreaker in many ways and it's likely that she will have a future career in some representative role in the federation (by the way, she has a degree in languages) In this article you can read all about her career, including her farewell words. She sure was the face of Italy NT for long and a player who will leave a legacy to the young generations.
Ireland-Italy going to start (under a pouring rain) : very experimental line-up, mixing up longtime veterans and youngsters, including the debut of Elisabetta Oliviero in defense: Goalkeeper: Katja Schroffenegger (Fiorentina); Defenders: Sara Gama (Juventus), Elena Linari (Roma), Elisabetta Oliviero (Sampdoria), Cecilia Salvai (Juventus); Midfielders: Giulia Dragoni (Barcellona), Aurora Galli (Everton), Giada Greggi (Roma); Forwards: Cristiana Girelli (Juventus), Benedetta Glionna (Roma), Martina Piemonte (Everton). Long ceremony cermony to celebrate Sara Gama's 140th and last cap before the start of the game.
Meanwhile, apart from the different solutions Andrea Soncin is trying in this game, it's been said that Manuela Giugliano and Valentina Giacinti are unavailable because of some minor (hopefully ) physical problems and had to leave the training camp and the whole double friendly matches' set. It's been probably precautional, in this key-moment of the season: I hope it's nothing serious.
Sara Gama almost concedes a PK on Kyra Carusa, but, seriously, at the referee's place, you would whistle a foul to a player at her final celebration match?
Italy-Ireland 0-0 FT. Probably the most exciting moment of the match was the Guard of Honour for Sara Gama when she was subbed-out at 50'. In the 2nd Half Ireland could have scored with a good counter-attack action whose goal was disallowed for a dubious off-side call , while Italy missed a good chance 5 minutes later with Michela Catena who wasted it by sending the ball high after a good dribbling in the box. 100th cap for late-sub Barbara Bonansea. Andrea Soncin probably could try something new and see some different players on the pitch (including Elisabetta Oliviero, who pushed a lot on her side and sure had a good debut; Giulia Dragoni was as brilliant as usual, and that's saying something for a 17 yo ). Probably not much else that one could expect from this kind of friendly matches, including the next one vs England, where probably the coach will rotate even more players.
England-Italy going to start in Algeciras. Austria just lost to England by 2-7: how many gols will they score to Italy? Starters (as predicted, 9 out of 11 are different compared to the match vs Ireland, inculding DF Lisa Boattin as a MF): Goalkeeper: Laura Giuliani (Milan); Defenders: Valentina Bergamaschi (Milan) Martina Lenzini (Juventus), Elena Linari (Roma), Lucia Di Guglielmo (Roma),; Midfielders: Arianna Caruso (Juventus), Aurora Galli (Everton),Lisa Boattin (Juventus); Forwards: Michela Cambiaghi (Inter), Sofia Cantore (Juventus), Michela Catena (Fiorentina).
England scored in the first minute with an header from CK action by Wubben-Moy! I predict a worse score than recent England's one vs Austria.
This starts reminding me of the game vs Sweden at the WWC: every Corner-Kick is a lethal danger. At the 5th CK of the game for England, at 20', they score the 2-0 goal from a goulmouth scramble with Hemp.
6th CK for England and 3-0 at 33': Hemp again with an header this time. On our way to a worse score than Austria (they at least managed to score: we hardly had any chance instead!).
Well, does it work? What's your magic today? Italy managed to at least score a goal before HT, with Michela Cambiaghi at 45'+3'. England 3-1 Italy at HT.
At 51', Cecilia Salvai for Valentina Bergamaschi in defense and Agnese Bonfantini for Michela Catena in offense.
England 5-1 Italy FT. 2nd Half subs Toone and Daly rounded up the score for England. @Lohmann will maybe be happy that it could anyway been worse without Laura Giuliani. We did marginally better than Austria, but it basically went as I expected. On the 5th of March, the draw for the Euro-qualifier will be very important. Now, back to the domestic league, with the start of the title-pool and the relegation-pool.
Highlights of the loss; there were a lot more Laura Giuliani's saves to see, but they couldn't cram them in a 2' minutes highlights video :
The 1st leg matches of the semi-finals of Coppa Italia Femminile were played yesterday. In Milan-Roma, Manuela Giugliano and Valentina Giacinti, who had left National Team's camp two weeks ago, were regularly on the pitch (and the former even hit a post and the crossbar during the game! ); it was Benedetta Glionna, instead, who had to subbed-out early, at 7', but her replacement, recently signed 20 yo Swiss FW Alayah Pilgrim, was one of the best players on the pitch. Roma, anyway, stopped by the woodwork and by a superb Laura Giuliani, had to wait for the last 10 minutes of the game to score, at first with Emilie Haavi from a CK action and then with Alayah Pilgrim in additional time, from a counterattack action while Milan was desperately looking for an equalizer. I am not saying this away win already sealed the deal, but reversing the score in Roma next week will sure be difficult for Milan. Fiorentina, this season, have repeatedly challenged Juventus for the 2nd place in the league (and in Italian women's football overall), but they had almost always failed so far; this time, instead, Juventus, who had started young Nigerian Jennifer Onyi Echegini instead of Lineth Beerensteyn (who likely came back injured from the Nations' League's matches with her NT, since she wasn't even on the bench ) wasn't particularly effective in offense. Fiorentina had some good fast combinations in the 1st Half and managed to force a pair goalmouth scrambles in the 2nd Half: on the second of those, Michela Catena scored the winner. It's a minimal margin for Fiorentina and Juventus could manage to overcome it next week, but for sure the Viola made a statement with this win. Recap of the 1st leg: Milan 0-2 Roma Fiorentina 1-0 Juventus Highlights: The 2nd leg matches will be played on the next week-end.
As strange as it can seem, the title-pool and the relegation-pool of the league are scheduled to start on the week-end of 16th and 17th of March. I looked around on some websites, but it looks like the clubs not involved in Coppa Italia's semifinals have only planned a training camp or at max some friendly matches. Meanwhile, guys, I leave you with a pic Cristiana Girelli recently posted on her social media to celebrate Sara Gama's last match with the National Team: all the players wear a wig to emulate and celebrate "the Cap" ("Cap" stands for "the Captain", since Gama was the iconinc wearer of the armband for years, but in Italian it can also stand for "capellona", who can jokingly refer to someone with a lot of hair, or often with a noticeable hairdress):