Serie A Femminile: Top five all fail to win, Fiorentina dragged into the relegation scrap

Serie A Femminile: Top five all fail to win, Fiorentina dragged into the relegation scrap

Date: 8th March 2022 at 10:12am
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It was another weekend of Serie A Femminile action that saw multiple teams’ seasons take a twist that they might not have expected.

There was a lack of movement from the teams fighting for the title and the Champions League spots, whilst the relegation scrap continued to see more and more teams get sucked in.

Lack of movement in the top five

The divide between the top half and the bottom half of Serie A Femminile has been very pronounced this season. As the campaign has worn on, sides from the bottom half have managed to take points off of those at the top.

This weekend, despite there only being one game between two top teams, none of the top five in the league managed to take all three points.

The biggest shock came in Rome where Lazio beat Sassuolo 3-1 and likely put an end to the Neroverde’s hopes of winning the title this season. The Biancoceleste’s form has improved in recent weeks even if they do still find themselves eight points from safety.

They are playing for pride at this point but Sassuolo were playing to try and make up ground on Juventus and Roma who played out a 1-1 draw the day before. It was a great chance for Gianpiero Piovani to keep his team in the title race but a lacklustre performance means they are now six points off the top and three away from second place.

A goal-line scramble that went down as an Angelica Soffia own goal gave Joe Montemurro’s Juve side the lead after 11 minutes. Roma responded well but couldn’t find an equaliser in the first half.

Then on the hour mark, an uncharacteristic loose pass from Valentina Cernoia was ruthlessly punished as Emilie Bosshard Haavi played Paloma Lazaro into the box and she expertly finished past Pauline Peyraud-Magnin.

Both teams had chances to win the game but it’s Juve who will be happier with the final result. Roma remain three points behind them with six games left to play.

AC Milan missed the chance to make up ground on all three of the teams above them. They faced relegation-threatened Napoli at home and took the lead through Lindsey Thomas inside the first two minutes.

With less than five minutes to go, Martina Toniolo stepped up and launched a fantastic free-kick into the back of the net to snatch a precious point that affects both ends of the table. That goal was one of three superb strikes this weekend in Serie A Femminile.

Inter had already become clear outsiders to make the Champions League this season under Rita Guarino but their 1-0 home defeat to Pomigliano left them nine points off second place.

Fiorentina find themselves in danger

There were high hopes for Fiorentina coming into this campaign but their form has been very disappointing. They then signed Valentina Giacinti and Veronica Boquete from AC Milan in the winter but so far they have not had the desired effect.

A 2-0 defeat away at Sampdoria this weekend means that they are now sitting in the third relegation spot and will have to try and swap places with Napoli in the final few weeks.

It also didn’t help La Viola that Empoli won away at Hellas Verona this weekend and are now three points closer to safety. It certainly seems that the relegation fight will be going right down to the wire.

Serie A Femminile Round 16 results:

Sampdoria 2-0 Fiorentina
Hellas Verona 0-1 Empoli
Juventus 1-1 Roma
Lazio 3-1 Sassuolo
AC Milan 1-1 Napoli
Inter 0-1 Pomigliano

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