FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023: Italy’s striker diversity and how it helped them overcome Argentina’s aggression – tactical analysis

Italy kicked off the 2023 FIFA Womens World Cup with a significant win against one of the underrated teams in this tournament, Argentina. This first win will help Italy a lot from a psychological perspective as it will make the team start the two remaining group stage games with a lot of positive motivation and more confidence in their ability to win, knowing that the next game will be against a tough team like Sweden, before facing South Africa. Although Italy won the match, there are plenty of aspects to improve and lots of mistakes to avoid in the upcoming games if they want to qualify for the knockout stage.

On the other hand, Argentina showed a lot of talent in this game, especially in an individual way, yet, the attacking ideas and chance creation lacked the teams performance.

This tactical analysis will focus on what Argentina should work on to exploit the talents and skills existing within the team more concretely and collectively, especially in attack. The analysis will also look at the tactics of Italy and study their strengths and weaknesses in this match while shedding some light on the strikers dilemma within the team and how to improve the midfield performance.

Line-ups

Milena Bertolini started the match using the 4-2-3-1 formation, using Inter Milans Francesca Durante as a goalkeeper, Lucia Di Guglielmo, Romas Elena Linari, Juventus Cecilia Salvai and Lisa Boattin in defence, Manuela Giugliano and Giulia Dragoni as central midfielders, Arianna Caruso as an advanced playmaker, Barbara Bonansea and Chiara Beccari as wingers, while Valentina Giacinti was the teams striker.

On the other hand, Germán Portanova preferred to opt for the 4-2-3-1 formation as well, with Vanina Correa in goal, Sophia Braun, Miriam Mayorga, Aldana Cometti and Eliana Stábile in defence, Daiana Falfán and Lorena Benítez as central midfielders, Florencia Bonsegundo as an advanced playmaker, Atlético Madrids Estefanía Banini and Romina Núñez on the wings while Mariana Larroquette was the teams forward.

Italys strikers dilemma and what to fix in midfield

The Italian strikers can represent a problem and a solution at the same time. Italy have got two of the best strikers in Serie A Women at the moment, even though both strikers are different from each other. Cristiana Girelli was indeed the one opening the score for Italy after replacing Valentina Giacinti. Yet, the latter was not at all passive and scored two goals that were disallowed and brought some danger to Argentinas defence, mainly thanks to her quick movements without the ball and her chemistry with Dragoni.

Giacinti is a player who excels in movements and in shooting on goal