The new Serie A Femminile season got underway with plenty of goals and drama but it was largely the usual suspects, primarily Juventus Women and AS Roma Women, that bagged three early points.
Despite there being no draws across the five games, there was perhaps only one fixture that was overtly one-sided in regard to the balance of play.
The expectation is that Roma and Juventus will fight it out for the title once again, but Inter and AC Milan have seemed the most likely to throw a cat among the pigeons. For one of the Milanese sides, it was not the ideal start to the new campaign.
AS Roma overcome AC Milan, Juventus survive scare at Pomigliano
With a scudetto to defend, the 2023/24 season in Serie A Femminile is very different to the last for AS Roma. They had that underdog mentality for much of the last season, full of drive to become the team to finally halt Juventus‘ dominance over the division.
Now, they are the team to beat. Not only that, but they are one two-legged tie away from reaching the Women’s Champions League group stages which unlocks at least six more tough fixtures, whilst Juventus were knocked out in the early qualification rounds and can go all-in on getting their title back.
With all of that in mind, Roma will be thrilled to have gone away to AC Milan on the opening day and secured all three points. They raced into the lead with goals from Elena Linari and Emilie Haavi, but to Milan‘s credit, they fought back through Chante Dompig‘s great strike and Gloria Marinelli‘s first goal since moving from Inter.
Quality always shines through, though, and Giada Greggi showed hers by scoring a superb goal in the second half to put the Giallorosse back ahead. A swift move which was ended by Benedetta Glionna meant Alessandro Spugna‘s side got the season underway with a 4-2 win.
They needed to offer that response because Juventus had got the weekend underway with a 3-2 win away at Pomigliano that was perhaps tougher than expected. They went behind early on in Campania but two goals in as many minutes from Amanda Nilden and a very impressive Julia Grosso tempered the Pantere’s excitement, for two minutes. Ana Martinez hit a superb half-volley into the top corner and showed Pomigliano were not going to roll over.
The ever-reliable Cristiana Girelli grabbed the winner in the second half, but it was a tighter affair than many expected.
Pomigliano and Sampdoria admirably avoid heavy defeats
The gap between the haves and the have-nots can be extremely stark in women’s football and Serie A Femminile is no exception. Coming into the new season, three teams looked most likely to be prime candidates to go down, albeit with a lot still to learn about each.
Of course, given their participation in the league was only confirmed two weeks before the season started, Sampdoria are expected to go down. Despite that, they put in a relatively admirable performance against Inter. They lost 2-0, but a thrashing was really on the cards given the Nerazzurre had enjoyed a good summer.
The effort levels didn’t drop and the moment when Stefania Tarenzi hit the bar in the second half shows that they still have a striker who is not only a leader, but one that guarantees a healthy number of goals each season.
Similarly, whilst Pomigliano did ultimately lose against Juventus, there is clearly some attacking quality in that squad and whilst there is an air of chaos around them at almost all times, they may still upset some of the bigger teams this season.
Napoli are the new team in the league and they also, whilst losing 2-1 to Como, certainly won’t be demoralised. Como ended last season very well and there is a solid side there that are not easy to beat.
We are only one week in so that’s the caveat here, but it is healthier for the division if the bottom teams are capable of strong displays against title contenders rather than these matches being foregone conclusions.
Serie A Femminile 2023/24: Matchday 1 results
| Date | Fixture |
| Sat, Sept 16 | Pomigliano 2-3 Juventus |
| Sat, Sept 16 | Fiorentina 2-1 Sassuolo |
| Sun, Sept 17 | Como 2-1 Napoli |
| Sun, Sept 17 | AC Milan 2-4 AS Roma |
| Sun, Sept 17 | Sampdoria 0-2 Inter |
Serie A Femminile table
| Pos | Club | MP | Pts |
| 1 | Inter | 1 | 3 |
| 2 | AS Roma | 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Como | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | Fiorentina | 1 | 3 |
| 5 | Juventus | 1 | 3 |
| 6 | Pomigliano | 1 | 0 |
| 7 | Napoli | 1 | 0 |
| 8 | Sassuolo | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | AC Milan | 1 | 0 |
| 10 | Sampdoria | 1 | 0 |
