Maybe a combination of fatigue and some micro-injury that made it look like it wasn't worth risking her? Anyway you're right that, at 30, she's not that old and one would figure that, if she was healthy enough to sit of the bench, the coach should have given her at least some late playing time, in a game that her team was losing by just 1-0 while with a win they could have still had a shot at 6th place...
I hope he doesn't bench her because she doesn't fit a kind of system like with Baggio, no other comparisions, but I guess it is because as you say something health related..
I had a ten minutes chat with Joe Montemurro last week and I bumped into him prior to the PSG v Lyon champions league semi-final. Among the subject we talked about, was the offside call not given against Lyon in the WCL group stage the previous season that led to a Lyon victory and Juventus elimination. He said that cost 700,000€ to Juventus in prize money and ticketing.
Of course, I suppose he didn't tell you anything about his personal future, or you can't anyway disclose it.
Last game of this match-day: Juventus quite easily win in Firenze with one goal per half, respectively by Sofia Cantore (header from a Lisa Boattin's cross) and by Barbara Bonansea (dogged personal action reminding of her best times). After reaching their target by defending their 3rd place vs Inter, Fiorentina look quite demotivated and gassed: Sebastián de la Fuente's side now just needs to finish this season, to find a pair good signings on the internatonal market this summer and to try their luck in the Champions' League's first rounds; they deserved this run, let's try to make the best out of it. The match of today: Fiorentina 0-2 Juventus Standings (Title Pool) Roma 67 (+47, 68 goals scored)(Italy's champions) Juventus 53 (+35, 59 goals scored) (qualified for UWCL 2024-'25) Fiorentina 42 (+7, 42 goals scored) (qualified for UWCL 2024-'25) Inter 34 (+1, 43 goals scored) Sassuolo 33 (-3, 33 goals scored) Standings (Relegation Pool) Milan 37 (+11, 39 goals scored) Como 29 (-15, 28 goals scored) Sampdoria 28 (-14, 24 goals scored) Napoli 12 (-26, 18 goals scored) Pomigliano 9 (-42, 20 goals scored) Highlights:
For me Inter almost feels like the second best team right now, at least from midfield and up and they got a real coach, unlike Juve. Fiorentina have just picked 3 points in 6 games. Ofcourse it's tougher in the champions group, but the other teams have done it much better.. Could it have something to do with the passing of Barone? I hope they can manage something good next year in CL, but they need to strengthen some areas. Feels like they are a bit unbalanced as a team, they got lots of quick wingers, excellent keeper and good midfield, but otherwise a bit lacking.They probably need a good pure striker and some defenders and then sell some of their oversupply of forwards..
Paulina Krumbiegel puts 🖊️ on 📄 . The 23 year old midfielder signs a two year deal for Juventus ⚫️⚪️. The German international moves from Hoffenheim to Italy. pic.twitter.com/LyAA36EaHe— Soccerdonna (@soccerdonna) May 7, 2024 According to @IamBerry29, AS Roma is interested in signing Juventus forward Lineth Beerensteyn. The 27-year-old Durch international 🇳🇱 also has interests from the Bundesliga. #linethbeerensteyn #asroma #seriea pic.twitter.com/fxPcbE5Nuc— Soccerdonna (@soccerdonna) May 7, 2024
Right,guess she's the reason Fiorentina play Champions leauge next season, Fiorentinas market will be very interesting..
As mentioned above, Lineth Beerensteyn has contacts not only in Italy, but in Germany also: more accurately, she's rumoured to be negotiating with Wolfsburg, not just with Roma. Roma, though, has officially signed Austrian international Verena Hanshaw (formerly known as Verena Aschauer), from Eintracht Frankfurt; a potential replacement for aging captain Elisa Bartoli? Or an alternative to Lucia Di Guglielmo? 💬 “I was impressed that the club has shown me immense appreciation over a long period of time and has shown me a clear plan for the future in all discussions.”- Verena Hanshaw 🐺📄👉 https://t.co/2HdU4K5Zh6#ASRomaWomen pic.twitter.com/Burdr72dJd— AS Roma Women 🇮🇹 (@ASRomaWomen) May 8, 2024
Looks like Juventus are going to play an international tournament for clubs in USA in August (Women's Cup: see official website), probably to better prepare for the UEFA Women's Champions' League 2024-2025. There are apparently two sections of the event: the one that will be played by Juventus will also include Racing Louisville (USA; the tournament itself will be hosted in Louisville from 9th to 13th of August), Palmeiras (BRA) and a still undisclosed club:
Lazio back in Serie A! Think it's nice cause they are one of the more classical womens football clubs in Italy, they got a lot longer history as a top club than Roma and Juve for example
And Pomigliano are directly relegated to Serie B instead: in a quite anticlimatic turn of events, Napoli managed to get a late draw vs Milan today, making next week's clash between Pomigliano and Napoli suddenly meaningless. But let's see today's matches one by one (the match-day will be completed tomorrow by a quite deluxe Monday's match, Juventus-Roma). The first match of today was Napoli-Milan: the hosts went ahead early in the 1st Half, when a cross by Valentina Cernoia was deflected in her own goal by a Valentina Gallazzi's header. Despite a constant pressure, the home team managed to remain in the game, especially when a chaotic goalmouth scramble saw Milan repeatedly shot at Napoli's goal and be denied by multiple saves by various DFs, including, in particular, three saves with her feet by Croatian GK Doris Bačić. Keeping that 0-1 score gave Napoli the chance for a late equalizer, that came at 84' through a middle-range volley by German MF Gina Chmielinski, at her first goal in Serie A Femminile, and what a goal! Not only in itself but also for what it meant for her team. With this 1-1 draw, indeed, Napoli can approach the last match-day's clash vs Pomigliano with a 4 points advantage that makes sure that they will avoid the direct relegation in Serie B. They will have to play-off instead vs the 2nd-placed team of Serie B (that's currently Ternana: they are 3 points ahead of Parma, but they're behind them in the direct clashes, so they could theoretically still be caught ). Milan gave, Milan took back: a 2-2 draw vs Milan had given some glimmer of hope to Pomigliano two match-days ago, but now Milan draws vs Napoli also, thus sealing Pomigliano's destiny. Pomigliano could have done something by themselves, without just depending on the final score in Napoli, but their away match was actually one way traffic for Como, who easily dominated the hosts. Two goals came in the 2nd Half, highlighting Pomigliano's atrocious defending: the first one was scored by Melania Martinovic (it was almost a misplayed trap), the second was an header by Julia Karlernäs (@dravde will be happy to know that she was regularly in the pitch today). Pomigliano even managed to miss a PK with Iris Rabot, more or less at the same time when Napoli was equalizing vs Milan (the two games had started at the same time). Bottom line: Pomigliano can't blame anyone but themselves for this sad ending of the season. Mmm, are you sure @dravde? It can look the second best to you, but today they officially lost the 4th place in the league to always impressive Giampiero Piovani's Sassuolo (Inter will rest in the next match-day, so today's overtaking by Sassuolo will stand, no matter what's their result next week vs Juventus). One thing's for certain: when Sassuolo play, there are a lot of goals in the match: Inter, apparently didn't get the memo in the 1st half, since they only hit some woodwork while the hosts were going ahead by 0-3 (an early goal by Cecilia Prugna was followed by a brace by Lana Clelland, including a PK converted in additional time); Lana Clelland scored again in the 2nd Half, thus completing a personal hat-trick, but Inter later managed to get on the scorebaord with Haley Bugeja and Elisa Polli. The final score was a 2-4 one, and I have to say that, at least for what they showed in the title-pool as a whole, the 4th place seemed well deserved by Sassuolo. Recap of today's matches: Napoli 1-1 Milan Como 2-0 Pomigliano Inter 2-4 Sassuolo Today's matches' highlights:
Haha, this season is so confusing. To my defence Inter hit a lot of woodwork and Sassuolo got a shady penalty, still Inter managed two goals. Also Inter is quite a lot better with Serturini and the international, the warrior- Michaela Cambaghi,probably their best attacker. Only one thing is clear this season - Roma is best in probably every position, or maybe not gk, I'd say schroffi edges Ceasar. Just one thought about wonderful, exciting Sassuolo. What will happen if Sassuolo men's team gets relegated? That will impact the money for the men's team I'm sure, just look at the chaos that was with Samp at the beginning of the season. Also heard rumours that Piovani will replace Guarino at Inter, that would be a huge blow for Sassuolo. I really hope that if Piovani leaves he can build something great at Inter, would be a waste otherwise. Lastly it about time with Pomigliano, they fought well for some time, kudos to them. Will be interesting to see Napoli go up against probably Ternana. Think as I said before that Napoli then what the table shows, they should've collected more points. Will be interesting to see of Serie B can match Serie A. Btw @blissett , do you think there will be any cancaelation of clubs in Serie A?You would think Parma taking over Sampdorias spot would be most likely in that case.
Mmm, these situations are difficult to predict, especially since, as you correctly pointed out, women's teams vastly depend on the destiny of the men's team they're affiliated with. Normally there is a situation of total summer-chaos that can end either way towards the beginning of the league in automn. The only thing I can say is that, at the moment, there are no official news of Serie A teams going to fold, but you can never say.
Hehe, yea it is crazy, I think Pomigliano will cease to exist anyway, so a free place for a team in Serie B, but we'll see.. Almost want Parma up instead of Samp, they feel more serious about their women's team. On the other hand the fighting spirit of the Samp players are admireable, from when they were close to fold to getting a new contract.
Sorry for the delay, but matches on Monday conflict a lot with my work-schedule! The champions of Italy looked like the season had already finished for them and did't seem to fight tooth and nail vs Juventus: although Evelyne Viens, at the beginning of the 2nd Half, managed to equalize the goal scored in the 1st Half by Sofia Cantore, the latter managed to post a brace with a spectacular lob after a long run from the midfield and was a general nightmare for Roma's defense-line (and for Anja Sønstevold in particular! ). "Joe" Echegini put the icing on the cake for Juventus with a goal scored at the last minute of additional time. This is only the second loss Roma suffered in this league (and the first one in the title-pool; the other had been in the regualr season vs Inter), but it's also the second time Juventus beat Roma in this season, since they had already won the Supercoppa Italiana match in January. Not sure about the meaning of this score at this moment of the season, but it's a fact that, despite still sitting 11 points behind their rivals with just one match-day to go, Juventus were the only team able to beat Roma twice on the domestic stage. Yesterday's match:: Juventus 3-1 Roma Standings (Title Pool) Roma 67 (+45, 69 goals scored)(Italy's champions) Juventus 56 (+37, 62 goals scored) (qualified for UWCL 2024-'25) Fiorentina 42 (+7, 42 goals scored) (qualified for UWCL 2024-'25) Sassuolo 36 (-1, 37 goals scored) Inter 34 (-1, 45 goals scored) Standings (Relegation Pool) Milan 38 (+11, 40 goals scored) Como 32 (-13, 30 goals scored) Sampdoria 28 (-14, 24 goals scored) Napoli 13 (-26, 19 goals scored)(play-off with the 2nd-place team of Serie B) Pomigliano 9 (-44, 20 goals scored)(relegated in Serie B) Highlights:
At last! You workplace should give you some time of cause Serie A Fem is also serious business! The take aways for me is: Cantore looked really dangerous in her new position; Viens is a monster; Juve are really struggling with Romas pace, wrong tactical setup?; Caruso is immence for Juve, what a power house! I know Roma didn't put up there best team and was probably taking it a bit easy, but they haven't looked too sharp recently, they have let in a lot of goals recently and drew Fiorentina not long ago. Roma will be big favourites hovewer against Fiorentina, who haven't looked there best recently either. For Juve I thought the match showed some positivt signs, I think Cantore-Echegeni-Beccari could be a really dangerous line up next season. Also the match reminded me that Juve need to let loose of some players. Players like Bonansea, Girelli and Gama should not be starter against the toughest teams anymore. Also I wonder a bit what a player like Bragonzi is doing as a sub for Juve at the moment, I think she's more fit for a lower ranked Serie A club, would probably be best for both parts. Looks like Juve need to find a lot of new players, cause they will probably offload a lot of foreigners, that hasn¨t worked out. Hope Garbino gets more play time next season, guess it's depends on what kinda football the new coach want to play, but I think she's a lot of fun, albeit a bit slow. Would be nice for the title race next year if Juve got their shit together, this year it's been a bit easy for Roma, because of the chaos at Juve.
Last match-day of this Serie A Femminile's season starts today with two games (one for the title-pool and one for the relegation-pool). Sassuolo's matches are always fun: this time they went behind by 2 goals in the 1st Half, since Juventus scored with "Joe" Echegini (who ends her 1st season in Italy at 10 goals, despite having played less than half of it) and Arianna Caruso. In the 2nd Half, the home team scored right away, with Half-Time sub Loreta Kullashi, assisted by Slovenian 17 yo starlet Naja Poje Mihelić. Later in the 2nd Half, Juventus went back being ahead by 2, with an header by Cristiana Girelli (at her 11th goal, so she passed her team-mate "Joe" Echegini in the scorers' rankings: at the end of this match-day, I'll give the final rankings of this season's top-scorers), assisted by Lisa Boattin. But Sassuolo never give up: captain Maria Luisa Filangeri was fouled in Juve's box by Estelle Cascarino and a former Bianconera, Annahita Zamanian, converted the subsequent PK. Sassuolo tried hard to equalize in the last ten minutes, but to no avail. Juventus end at the 2nd place, Sassuolo at the 4th: it was an entertaining match between two good teams. Milan-Sampdoria ends on a 3-1 score, with a brace by Kosovare Asllani and a late goal by Gloria Marinelli for Milan, a lonely header-goal from CK-action by Cecilia Re for Sampdoria. It was the last game of Laura Fusetti's career: 135 games in Serie A Femminile in 6 season with Milan, 22 games with Brescia, another 200-something games with Como back and forth between Serie A and Serie B in the first part of her career, 9 caps with Italy Senior National Team in 2019-2020 (but without the WWC). Milan end the season at the 6th place (first of the relegation pool, but it was quite a failure for them to have to play it), Sampdoria at the 8th place (3rd of the relegation pool, a success in itself for a team who seemed destined to disband in the middle of last summer). Matches of today: Sassuolo 2-3 Juventus Milan 3-1 Sampdoria Today's highlights:
History is not made of "ifs", but one can't help wondering if Pomigliano would have won today's derby vs Napoli even if if they had been just 3 points behind them instead of 4 and if the match had subsequently meant something. Actually, you can bet Napoli would have deployed a very different line-up in that case; there were instead 7 different starters out of 11 compared to the team who had managed to get a draw vs Milan last week-end: key-players as GK Doris Bačić, DFs Paola Di Marino and Miharu Kobayashi, FW Elisa del Estal were missing and the coach, now that the target had been reached, gave some playing-time to youngsters and other under-used players. One of the few starters who were on the pitch today for Napoli, Paloma Lázaro, opened the score early, but later Pomigliano managed to reverse the score with a brace by Zhanna Ferrario and a lonely goal by 2nd Half sub Chiara Manca (who also back-heel assisted the last goal of the game). Pomigliano end the season with a smile and just one single point behind their rivals; Napoli will have to prepare for the play-off vs the second-placed team of Serie B (that's Ternana: they have beaten San Marino today, while Parma only posted a draw vs winners of the league of Lazio), but today they decided to basically only have a scrimmage. For the loyal readers of this thread, the 1st leg of the play-off, Ternana-Napoli, will be played on the 22th of May; the 2nd leg, Napoli-Ternana, will be played on the 26th of May. The Last game in Roma was just about giving playing-time to everyone (even Roma's 3rd GK, 37 yo Swedish veteran of Serie A Femminile Stéphanie Öhrström was among the starters!) and about deciding the scorers' rankings of the league (more about that later). Fiorentina couldn't do much to have a say in this celebration: Vero Boquete, with a pair of shots, was one of the lasts to give up, but in the end Roma showcased the superior quality that made them dominate the domestic season. Not only they scored 5 unanswered goals with Moeka Minami, Sanne Troelsgaard, Valentina Giacinti (a brace for her) and Evelyne Viens, but they did it in style, with Emilie Haavi slinging cross after cross as an assist-machine and Saki Kumagai cutting the pitch in half with her pinpoint passes. After this game, Roma's players clinched the top 2 positions of the scorers' rankings (see details at the end of this post). Also, if this game had to be seen as a preview of the final match of Coppa Italia between Roma and Fiorentina, that will be played on the 24th of May in Roma (the venue had been decided before knowing the names of the finalists), well... Fiorentina don't look like they are particularly likely to win that trophy, do they? Today's scores: Pomigliano 3-1 Napoli Roma 5-0 Fiorentina Final Standings of Serie A Femminile 2023-2024: Roma 70 (+50, 74 goals scored)(Italy's champions) Juventus 59 (+38, 65 goals scored) (qualified for UWCL 2024-'25) Fiorentina 42 (+2, 42 goals scored) (qualified for UWCL 2024-'25) Sassuolo 36 (0, 39 goals scored) Inter 34 (-1, 45 goals scored) Milan 41 (+13, 43 goals scored)* Como 32 (-13, 30 goals scored) Sampdoria 28 (-16, 25 goals scored) Napoli 13 (-28, 20 goals scored)(play-off with the 2nd-place team of Serie B) Pomigliano 12 (-42, 23 goals scored)(relegated to Serie B) * Notice that Milan made more total points than Sassuolo and Inter, but they are anyway 6th-placed since they played the relegation pool. Highlights of today's games: Bonus: Top Scorers' rankings of Serie A Femminile with today's brace, Valentina Giacinti leapfrogged Cristiana Girelli; Evelyne Viens did even better with her goal, putting a separation between herself and her team-mate and winning the title of best scorer of Serie A Femminile 2023-2024. I'll list the top 10 below (actually top 11, because there are three players tied at 9th place with 8 goals; the number of Penalty Kicks is indicated in brackets): 1 - Evelyne Viens (Roma): 13 goals (0) 2 - Valentina Giacinti (Roma): 12 goals (1) 3 - Cristiana Girelli (Juventus): 11 goals (4) 4 - Jennifer Echegini (Juventus): 10 goals (0) - Manuela Giugliano (Roma): 10 goals (2) 6 - Lana Clelland (Sassuolo): 9 goals (1) - Lina Magull (Inter): 9 goals (3) - Verónica Boquete (Fiorentina): 9 goals (4) 9 - Victoria Della Peruta (Sampdoria): 8 goals (0) - Lindsay Thomas (Juventus): 8 goals (0) - Agnese Bonfantini (Inter): 8 goals (2) As you can see, the top 5 is dominated by Roma and Juventus: quite the mirror of the final rankings of the league. You'll also notice how some players managed to make the top 10 despite being late-signings for their respective teams.
Bit worried for Fiorentina and their form. I wonder what has happend, no win since the beginning of the "Scudetto Poul". I hope they can get their act together and put on a decent act in CL, Italy needs well-performing teams in CL.Think I may be repeating what I've said before in the last part of my text. I think Fiorentina has been overperfmorming in parts of their season. They have a very thin squad and are even lacking good enough players in some positions. I'm not sure but isn't Fiorentina a team that are investing a lot in their team? Should do some signings in the summer.
Madelen Janogy has been a good in-season signing, but it's obvious that she's not enough. I guess most of the good Fiorentina showcased in this season was due to Sebastián de la Fuente, a gritty coach who's well-known for getting the very best from his teams (previously Como and Inter, both promoted to Serie A from Serie B under him): he's probably been the best signing of this season and the actual season-changer of the team. He also has a lot of experience with youth teams, but what he's missing is international experience: he's undisputedly good on the domestic scene and on the long run of a traditional league, but how will he fare on the short distance of a Champions' League qualifier? No-one knows, but he sure needs the help of the club, that has to give him two or three solid signings to help him compete on that stage.
Maybe they have worn their good players out. Anyway a very good season for them as a whole, they have overachieved. Incredible the way they could live off their regular season results, they actually haven't had a single win in "Poule Scudetto". Remember also before janogy they had Catena doing lots of good things. She was actually the leader in goals+assists in the leauge by christmas, not sure she's made a single point since then.