Italy Women faced Lithuania Women for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Qualifiers last week and the game ended with a heavy 7-0 loss for the relatively young Lithuanian side. Italy knew how to find their way to their goal seven times along with numerous other missed chances, exploiting the lack of experience of their opponent.
In fact, winning this match was fundamental for the Azzurre in their course for the qualification from the group stage without resorting to playing the play-offs. However, since they previously lost to Switzerland who are with them in Group G, in addition to Romania, Croatia, Moldova, Italy were obliged to beat Switzerland when they face them in Switzerland in order to occupy the first spot.
Moreover, failing to win against Lithuania or even in the following two games that will take place after facing Switzerland will mean that Italy would put their qualification from the group stage at risk. Therefore, both Italy and Switzerland will be battling for a single qualifying spot until the end of this group stage journey.
In this tactical analysis article, the focus will mainly be on Italy’s tactics, weaknesses and strengths ahead of their crucial encounter against Switzerland. The article will explore what went well for the Azzurre and what they still need to improve in order to be more efficient both from a defensive and an attacking perspective.
Line-ups
Milena Bertolini preferred to start the match with a 4-1-4-1 formation that transforms to a 4-3-3 formation during the game using plenty of Serie A Women players. The line-up was composed of Milan’s Laura Giuliani as a goalkeeper, Valentina Bergamaschi, former PSG’s Sara Gama, Elena Linari and Lisa Boattin in defence, Martina Rosucci, Manuela Giugliano and Juventus’ Arianna Caruso in midfield, both Barbara Bonansea and Valentina Cernoia on the wings to support the striker Cristiana Girelli.
On the other side, Daniel Wimmer opted for a 4-4-1-1 rather defensive formation relying on Greta Lukjančukė as a goalkeeper, Greta Guižauskaitė, Monika Piesliakaitė, Milda Liužinaitė and Lolita Žižytė in defence, Algimantė Mikutaitė and Liucija Vaitukaitytė as central midfielders, both Paulina Sarkanaitė and Loreta Rogačiova on the wings on the same line with Judita Sabatauskaitė who played as an advanced playmaker and had the mission of supporting the team’s striker, Ugnė Lazdauskaitė.
The Azzurre’s goals and strengths
Italy started this match with the intention of scoring the highest possible number of goals as early as possible, knowing that the goal difference can be crucial in deciding the winner of the group. And since they were aware of their abilities to surpass Lithuania’s defensive lines with ease given that they were able to do so in the away fixture, Italy didn’t lose time and were attacking almost throughout the whole game. The team scored their first goal at the second minute of the match following a quick combination of passes with single touches between three Italian players in a tight space, allowing Caruso to find herself alone in front of goal after excluding all Lithuanian defenders from the action.
As you can see below, Cernoia and Giuliano’s quick passing combination as well as Cernoia’s assist enabled Caruso to have time to decide about her shot and put it inside the net and were key to scoring this goal.
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