The thing with how the Serie A Femminile season is now constructed is that your going to have very few matchdays to catch your breath if you’re included in the Poule Scudetto. You know your final eight games of the season will come against the other top four teams in the league, and that just adds an extra dynamic to an already very competitive top half of the table.
That’s what made Juventus Women’s Sunday afternoon matchup against two-time defending champions Roma so interesting. Juve were at risk of losing three straight league fixtures for the first time all season after going into the international break with losses to Fiorentina and Inter Milan … and then had to try and stop that short losing skid against a team they have met so often over the last couple of years.
Well, say goodbye to chances of losing three straight. And put the champagne on ice, too.
Juventus Women moved within one result of clinching their first Scudetto in three years with a 2-1 victory over Roma on the Giallorosse’s home turf. January signing Emma Stølen Godø gave Juve the lead after just nine minutes, with Sofia Cantore adding to her career-high goal tally just after the half-hour mark to double the Bianconere’s first-half lead. Juventus held on from there, as Roma found the back of the net through Valentina Giancinti with seven minutes remaining to cut the deficit in half.
But the last-minute push came up short, and Juventus Women extended their lead atop the Serie A Femminile table to 10 points with three games to go. With second-place Inter being the Poule Scudetto team that was idle this weekend, they have a game in hand. Juve can clinch their sixth title since their inception in 2017 with a win over AC Milan at Biella on Friday.
The win almost marked the long-awaited return for Juve defender Cecilia Salvai, who had been out all season with a torn muscle in her thigh that she suffered in late July during preseason training.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better comeback,” Salvai said after the win, “If I had to think about it I would have chosen just such a match, these are the kind of matches that provide extra motivation. I was very calm because I have great confidence in my teammates. I didn’t think I would play 90 minutes honestly, but in the end we needed to defend well and we couldn’t throw the result away. We suffered a bit in the second half but it was important to bring home the victory, games are also won this way and I am very happy for the team because they are three very important points.”
Juventus Women have seen Roma take over the top spot in Serie A Femminile the last two seasons after the Bianconere won five straight titles under the direction of Rita Guarino and Joe Montemurro. However, the last two years have seen plenty of change take place in Turin, with Montemurro leaving the club last March and Max Canzi — a manager who hadn’t previously had much experience in women’s football — taking over in the summer.
Juve didn’t enter the season as title favorites. It was, as you might expect, Roma’s Scudetto to lose in the eyes of just about everybody as Juventus Women adjusted to life under a new manager amidst plenty of roster churn over the summer.
But as Roma struggled early in the season, Juve just continued to win … and win … and win. They didn’t suffer their first league loss — ironically, to this same Roma squad — until mid-January. And with that winning came the ability to build a comfortable lead heading into the second phase of the season where the top five and bottom five break off into different divisions to battle it out against the other four teams they’re grouped with to decide the Scudetto winners and which two teams will get relegated.
Just five days from now, that title winner could very well be the Juventus women — and after so much uncertainty about how things will go coming into the season, this one will certainly have a little extra meaning behind it.
