Serie A Women 2020/2021: Milan Women vs Juventus Women

For the first time in italian football history, San Siro opened its doors for a women’s match on Monday and this occasion witnessed Italy’s classico between Milan Women and Juventus Women. The match ended with a Juventus’ precious win that put the team first in the table and gave more confidence to the whole squad since this win will be fundamental in determining Serie A Women’s winner later on.

Why? because beating a direct opponent in an away match can only be considered as a first step towards escaping from opposing teams and conserving the first spot.

Milan however lost three points that could have made the team gain points over their direct opponent Fiorentina who lost against Sassuolo. This first loss of the season therefore, made Milan equal in points with Fiorentina and Empoli who are now all in the third spot, while Sassuolo comes second behind Juventus.

The match was very balanced with the two teams trying to score first. Juventus were the team who scored early thanks to Cristiana Girelli’s penalty goal. Afterwards, and especially in the second-half, Milan showed their attacking power and created some dangerous chances but failed to equalise.

And in this tactical analysis article, we will delve deeper into both teams’ tactics and plans in an attempt to provide readers with a meticulous analysis of this clash as well as identifying Milan and Juventus’ strengths and weaknesses and most influential players.

Lineups

For this game, the locals who are coached by Maurizio Ganz lined-up according to a 4-3-1-2 formation with Mária Korenčiová as a goalkeeper behind four defenders, Valentina Bergamaschi on the right flank, Laura Fusetti and Laura Agard as centre-backs and Linda Tucceri Cimini as a left-back.

The midfield was made-up of Refiloe Jane as a defensive midfielder and both Dominika Čonč and Claudia Mauri as central midfielders. In front of them, Ganz relied on Christy Grimshaw to link the midfield to the attack and provide both Milan forwards Natasha Dowie and Valentina Giacinti with passes.

Juventus, coached by Rita Guarino, played this match according to a 4-3-3 formation that was formed of Laura Giuliani as a goalkeeper and Tuija Hyyrynen on the right flank while Cecilia Salvai and Linda Sembrant played as centre-backs since the captain Sara Gama was injured.

On the left, Lisa Boattin played as a left back while the midfield was composed of three midfielders, Aurora Galli, Martina Rosucci and Sofie Junge Pedersen. In attack, Rita Guarino chose to play with three players, with Cristiana Girelli as a forward, Barbara Bonansea as a left winger who cuts inside so often to help Girelli, and Valentina Cernoia on the right-wing.

A frustrating loss for a promising Milan side

Milan did not start the match in the best possible way since most duels were won by Juventus who had more possession of the ball and made life harder for Milan’s midfield before scoring a goal early in the match. However, in times in which Milan had the opportunity of launching counter-attacks, they usually failed in the last and decisive pass.

You can see in this example how Dowie received the ball in a counter-attacking action and had the possibility of making a key pass to Giacinti to enable her to find herself in a one on one situation with Giuliani, Juventus’ goalkeeper. However, even though Dowie intended to pass the ball, she failed to make it reach Giacinti mainly due to Salvai’s crucial interception.

But despite this chance, both Giacinti and Dowie, which constitute the source of Milan’s attacking threat, were tightly marked by Juventus’ defenders as they were disturbed as soon as they received the ball. And this made Milan’s attacking chances less dangerous and reduced Milan’s forwards’ freedom with the ball in the box and even in midfield.

As you can see here, Giacinti and Dowie were always marked by two Juventus players and if they receive the ball a midfielder joins those two defenders to disturb Milan’s forwards even further and prevent them from passing or shooting. This shows that Rita Guarino read her opponent’s strengths very well and created solutions to alleviate Milan’s danger.