Como deservedly stay in Serie A Femminile but Parma and Sampdoria continue to drift

The relegation battle in Serie A Femminile is very much where the action and the focus are as we head into the final handful of games.

The Scudetto Pool had its two areas of interest decided on Matchday 6 of the Playoff phase which means all there is to see there is a battle between AC Milan, Inter and Fiorentina to see who can finish third. Juventus drew 2-2 with Inter on Matchday 7 whilst Fiorentina and AC Milan drew 1-1.

Down at the bottom, the fight has appeared to be between four different sides with Sassuolo long-looking like they will be more than fine despite a horrendous start to the season.

Como secure another season in Serie A Femminile

Coming up from Serie B Femminile last season, Como immediately appeared to be a candidate to go back down. Sampdoria were not expected to drop off so dramatically, Parma were expected to get their act together much sooner, and Pomigliano were probably the favourites to go down with Como.

As it is, Como have still got three games left to play and they are safe, sat on 24 points. They secured their fate on Matchday 7 of the Playoff phase with a 2-1 win over Sampdoria in what was a huge game at the bottom. The game featured three penalties, a late winner from Julia Karlernas, and two later red cards, one of which was for the match-winner.

With Como Women being totally separate to the men’s club, they have autonomy over how they run every facet of the club. It is no secret that Sampdoria have been suffering thanks to the terrible situation that the men’s side finds itself in. The real secret to their impressive Serie A Femminile season is two kids on loan from Juventus and Inter respectively, Chiara Beccari and Matilde Pavan.

The two 18-year-olds have played a part in 11 goals for Como which in the context of a relegation battle is very impressive. They do need to plan for life without them, though. The good thing is that Juventus and Inter can look at those loan spells and think ‘Como gave two 18-year-olds plenty of minutes and space to develop, and they both never seemed to stop smiling when they were on the pitch’.

They’ll remember that, and the likes of Scudetto winners AS Roma, AC Milan and Inter will have noticed it as well. Como will be able to use that in negotiations when acquiring more youngsters on loan next season.

Clouds gather over Parma and Sampdoria

The fact that Como are now safe is bad news for three other teams, but particularly Parma and Sampdoria. Pomigliano are not out of the picture yet, but they have three games to play and are three points ahead of the bottom two.

It would take a bit of a collapse for them to be reeled in by one or both teams at this stage as they are clearly a better team than Parma and Samp. The real battle now seems to be avoiding the automatic relegation spot. It is currently occupied by Samp and they are level on points with Parma. The two sides play each other on May 20 and that will be Parma’s final game of the season.

Samp will have another game to play on the last weekend which is away at Pomigliano. Parma could very well find themselves going down on the final day without playing, as a quirk of the new Playoff system.

Matchday 7 almost ended with a point for Parma away at Sassuolo as they fought back in a thrilling game to be level at 4-4 with 25 minutes to play. Summing up their season, though, Daniela Sabatino scored a 92nd-minute penalty to make it 5-4 to Sassuolo.

Serie A Femminile Playoff Matchday 7 results

Serie A Femminile table