Following Kamila Dubcová’s tripletta against Sassuolo Femminile in the first leg of the Coppa Italia quarter-finals, Milan Women succeeded in confirming that they deserve to pass to the semi-finals of the competition with a commanding six goals scored on aggregate. As a result, I Rossonere will be facing Roma in the semi-finals, while the other semi-final will witness a clash between Fiorentina and Juventus. Sassuolo, however, will need to focus a lot more on their defensive and attacking errors in order to improve their performances and challenge the top Italian teams once again, knowing that they have been better from both aspects recently.
In this tactical analysis, we will explore Sassuolo’s main weaknesses and needed improvements in terms of tactics following their 6-0 loss against Milan in the quarter-finals. At the same time, the analysis will identify what has changed at Milan and why they are performing better against tough teams like Sassuolo, knowing that they used to struggle against this team during the last few seasons and even this season in their Serie A Femminile encounter.
We will also look at how Milan can build on their double performance against Sassuolo to improve their results in Serie A, knowing that their actual standing is worrying and does not reflect a positive season for the Rossonere so far. Holding the eighth spot with just 15 points is not really what Milan are aiming for this season as the main objective is to qualify for the UWCL or challenge for the league title.
Therefore, we can consider Davide Corti’s results as disappointing so far, even though the team is doing well in the Women’s Cup.
On the other hand, Sassuolo are doing a little bit better in the league as they are holding the 5th spot with 20 points, winning six games, losing seven games and drawing twice. As things stand, this spot enables Sassuolo to qualify for the championship round. In contrast, Milan will have to play in the relegation round if they do not improve their results in a significant way and as soon as possible.
Lineups
Corti started this match using the 4-3-3 formation with Selena Babb as a goalkeeper, Guðný Árnadóttir, Małgorzata Mesjasz, Julie Piga (who was later subbed by Laura Fusetti), and Angelica Soffia in defence, Valery Vigilucci, Silvia Rubio Ávila and Christy Grimshaw as central midfielders, while Nadia Nadim and Evelyn Ijeh played as wingers and Chanté Dompig was the team’s striker before being subbed by Andrea Stašková in the second-half.
On the other side, Gianpiero Piovani preferred to opt for the 4-4-2 formation with Isabella Kresche as a goalkeeper, Bénédicte Simon, Angela Passeri, Caroline Pleidrup, and Davina Philtjens in defence, Giorgia Tudisco, Giada Pondini, Kassandra Missipo and Erika Santoro in midfield while Manuela Sciabica and Valeria Monterubbiano formed the attacking duo.
Sassuolo’s defensive and attacking issues
Sassuolo made a lot of mistakes in the first leg of the quarter-finals and gave the opportunity for Milan to win the advantage both in terms of goals and on a psychological level too, making Milan’s mission a bit easier in the second leg. One of Sassuolo’s most remarkable issues against Milan was their misplaced, inaccurate passing inside their own half, which led to conceding opportunities and, eventually, goals.
The most problematic action in this regard concerns Kresche’s wrong pass to Dubcová, which led to conceding a goal out of nowhere due to a passing mistake. Sassuolo will have to urgently fix this issue by either relying more on long passes towards the final third or the wings or simply by avoiding passes towards the middle and training extensively on how to build up from the back without taking risks, as this has been causing real defensive issues for Sassuolo.
Another big issue that is creating a lot of problems for Sassuolo is their marking inside the box, whether during set-pieces or crosses. Individual marking on certain occasions was very poor since Sassuolo’s defenders left too much space for dangerous attacking players such as Dubcová and Grimshaw to find the necessary time and space to execute their actions without disturbance.
This absence of aggressive marking inside the box and distraction by opponents’ movements without the ball must be addressed as soon as possible to avoid situations like in this third Milan goal when Dubcová found herself free in front of goal. At the same time, her direct marker was very distant when the ball was crossed from the right wing, allowing Dubcová to score without precipitation since she had all the necessary time to make her decision, control the ball and shoot on goal.
Moreover, lacking the necessary pace to challenge quick attacking players and win the duels with them is another issue that need to be fixed by acquiring quicker defenders on the long term and by coaching the actual defenders to mark intelligently and aggressively even if they are not pacy enough. Also, covering and moving without the ball to help teammates in trouble in necessary on occasions like the one we see below.
Dompig was quicker than her direct marker here, and despite noticing that Dompig was advancing towards the goal after getting away from Pleidrup, Philtjens did not cover for the gap left by her teammate on time and was hesitant before running to close the angle and disturb Dompig to prevent her from shooting on goal. This hesitation in terms of movements without the ball can lead to severe issues, as it led to conceding a goal here. Therefore, a lot of defensive work and organisational drills are needed for Sassuolo to avoid conceding many goals per game in the future.
From an attacking perspective, we were not able to see a lot of chances created by Sassuolo in both games, but in the few chances created, a real finishing issue was noticed as Sassuolo succeeded in reaching the box, but the final touch was always lacking either accuracy or power.
Perhaps one of Sassuolo’s most crucial attacks that could have left some hope and motivation for the team to get back in the game was Sabatino’s left-footed strike, knowing that she was unmarked in front of goal on this occasion. Therefore, she could have used more power and accuracy to score this goal, instead of attempting a shot between the feet of Babb.
Milan’s convincing attacking performances
Milan have shown great maturity when dealing with this double encounter against Sassuolo as they did not retreat as soon as they scored a goal but kept exploiting the chances they had, whether in the away or in the home leg, which highlights a winning mentality and determination to advance to the following stages. Applying the same mentality and dealing with games in the same way during Serie A Femminile games would help Milan a lot in enhancing their standings and get more points to avoid the relegation group and join the Championship phase.
The team relied on different attacking weapons to confuse Sassuolo’s defence. Dubcová exploited Sassuolo’s defensive issues perfectly in the away leg, as she was always able to exploit inaccurate passes and position herself well when Sassuolo’s defenders failed to mark her tightly. Therefore, scoring three goals in the away leg facilitated the mission a lot for the Rossonere and enabled them to play without much stress but with the same determination to win, which helped them score another three goals.
Grimshaw’s ability to penetrate inside Sassuolo’s box and quickly dribble past players before shooting accurately using her weaker foot to score the first goal of the game highlights’ the players’ form and how they played with ease and knew how to punish Sassuolo whenever possible.
Moreover, exploiting the wings was another excellent choice by Corti since Dompig represented a real threat for Sassuolo throughout the game, knowing that Sassuolo’s defenders were not able to keep up with Dompig’s pace and that’s why they conceded a second goal in less than 15 minutes. The credit also goes to Árnadóttir, who saw Dompig’s run into space and provided her with an excellent through pass to meet her acceleration.
Milan was also capable of adding another goal or two because they were able to create numerous opportunities in this game, and perhaps the most notable missed chance was Vigilucci’s shot that was saved by Sassuolo’s goalkeeper following an excellent key pass from the right wing by Grimshaw. Vigilucci was positioned perfectly to successfully finish the action but failed to direct her shot where she wanted.
Nevertheless, such actions highlight the fact that Milan did not retreat after scoring goals and kept pushing for a third one even though they were not obliged to do so. This winning mentality and motivation to do better and score more can lead the team to further success if they keep applying it in all games.
Having numerous reliable attacking options is another factor that helped Milan perform well even during the second half, with the subs of players like Stašková who provides remarkable attacking depth and allows wingers to rely on crosses since they knew that Stašková would be waiting for such crosses to win aerial duels and why not score. That’s exactly what happened in the second half as Soffia crossed the ball to Stašková, and the latter was able to finish the action on goal with some help from Vigilucci.
Milan should definitely keep their excellent attacking form going and build on these two wins to do better in Serie A Femminile, as they need to improve their results if they want to play in the Championship phase. Otherwise, it would be considered a total failure to see a team with numerous quality players failing to advance to the Championship phase and be obliged to compete in the relegation group instead.
Conclusion
Milan got the qualification ticket to the Coppa Italia semi-finals after putting on two convincing performances against a team they usually struggle against, and this should be considered excellent work. Consolidating this win with another win in the upcoming encounter between Milan and Sassuolo in Serie A would be perfect for Milan, whether in terms of morale or of points.
On the other hand, Sassuolo should turn off the page of Coppa Italia and focus on Serie A, where they have the chance to take revenge on Milan and return to winning ways in the best of ways. This being said, a lot of work should be carried out, mainly in terms of defensive organisation, marking, passing and finishing, in order to overcome this difficult period.
