STADIO ENNIO TARDINI (Parma): AS Roma edged Juventus to be crowned Supercoppa Femminile champions in Parma on Saturday after an excellent and hard-fought contest that went all the way to a penalty shootout after 120 intense minutes in which last season’s top two in Serie A Femminile and Coppa Italia finalists were inseparable.
Roma put away four of their five spot kicks, with only Benedetta Glionna missing the Giallorosse’s third. But Cristiana Girelli stepped up to follow Glionna and saw her effort saved by Camelia Ceasar, then Sofia Cantore suffered that same fate with Juventus‘ fifth after Paloma Lazaro and Emilie Haavi had joined Manuela Giugliano and Elena Linari in converting.
Prior to the shootout, the crowd of over 3,500 at the Tardini were treated to a real show from two sides that are Italy’s best and showing that in the Women’s Champions League this season. Roma went ahead in the first half through Valentina Giacinti before Lisa Boattin levelled for the Bianconere in the second half.
Roma are on the rise, and they are ready for a real title push
It hasn’t happened overnight, but Roma are as real a threat as Juventus have had to their place at the very top of the Italian game as they’ve had in their six seasons so far. They used to have Fiorentina as their big rivals, but Roma are so far beyond anything that has sought to challenge the Bianconere before.
Had it not been for a slow start in 2021/22, the Giallorosse might have pushed Juventus all the way then. This season, though, Roma are so far managing to balance European and domestic duties perfectly, and perhaps even better than Juventus are. It is they who top the Serie A Femminile table, and it is they wh have won each of their two Women’s Champions League fixtures so far.
Having added well to an already-impressive group, things look to have changed this season. The Supercoppa triumph might just be, come season’s end, something that we look back on as being a sign of what was to come in the title race.
Heartache for Sofia Cantore
Sofia Cantore is one of the most promising and exciting Italian footballers around. She has made the step back up to Juventus having returned from a number of loans, most recently at Sassuolo, pretty well so far. The sky is the limit for her, and for her to miss the decisive kick was an example of how cruel a game football is.
Joe Montemurro spoke about the miss in his post-match press conference and was happy to put Cantore and Girelli’s misses down to one of those things that can happen in football, and had said, with a smile, that Juventus will need to spend time practicing penalties.
When Benedetta Glionna missed the first in the shootout and was clearly distraught, Cantore broke from the line of Juventus players to go and have a quick word with her close friend. Girelli then missed straight after and things were level again. For Cantore to then step up and miss, after such a show of empathy, was brutal. Glionna, to her credit, was fast on the scene along with a number of Juventus players to comfort Cantore as Roma’s players rushed to celebrate with goalkeeper Camelia Ceasar.
