Over the course of the last couple of years, Juventus Women’s roster has undergone quite a significant number of changes. Players with vast European experience have come and gone, players who won titles during Juve’s Scudetto streak at the beginning of their existence have also departed, and the spine of the club that helped win five straight Serie A Femminile titles has become smaller and smaller.
Those mainstays, the senatore, can be counted on one hand now.
But as Juventus Women close in on their first Scudetto in three years — something they can clinch with a win over AC Milan on Friday night in Biella thanks to their victory over Roma last weekend — there’s no denying that their No. 10 has had one her best seasons with the Bianconere.
Cristiana Girelli is just a few days shy of ringing in her 35th birthday. She is also the Serie A Femminile leader in goals scored by a comfortable five-goal margin with four games to play. With 17 goals to her name this season, Girelli is just three strikes away from her first 20-goal season since the 2020-21 campaign — one that saw her scored 22 times and have 25 goal contributions in 21 games. That also happens to be the last time she led the league in goals scored and a season in which Juventus Women won the Scudetto by a double-digit point tally.
Considering they are currently 10 points up on second-place Inter Milan, the similarities are there for the taking if you want them.
The difference, of course, is that the squad that Girelli had around her then is much different than the one that there is now. There have been two managerial changes since that 2020-21 season, the final title-winning campaign that Rita Guarino had in Turin. And she’s also four years older and entering a point in many careers in which retirement has arrived or the sheer stats don’t come close to replicating what they’ve done in the past.
Except for Girelli, who renewed with the Bianconere through 2026 in mid-February, she’s just three goals shy of hitting 20 on the season in Serie A.
Considering all of the changes that the summer of 2024 brought to the Juve roster and the adjustment to a new manager who was fairly unknown in the world of women’s football in Italy, so much was unknown about what would come about during the 2024-25 season. Juve seemed like they were in a season of change under a new maanger — younger roster, talented but still inexperienced players coming into larger roles, summer additions that you weren’t totally sure how they might fit in.
Yet, there’s been Girelli just doing Girelli things.
And that means scoring goals. Lots and lots of goals.
The wild part of it all is not that she’s doing this in a season in which she will turn 35, but she has completely outperformed her xG this season that it is even crazy to put them next to one another. But we’re going to do that anways:
- Girelli’s xG in the 2024-25 season: 9.8
- Girelli actual goal tally in the 2024-25 season: 17
That speaks to some of her goals being ones that only somebody like Girelli can score. She wears the No. 10, but she is the very definition of a cold-blooded finisher that so many other No. 9s have been like in the past. Plus, when you score hat tricks in back-to-back appearances like Girelli did against Milan and Roma (albeit nearly a month apart due to rest and an international break), it just shows you what she’s still very much capable of doing.
Go ahead and watch those highlights above. Do it. See how Juve first falls behind 2-1 against the two-time reigning Serie A Femminile champions — albeit not having close to as good of a season as they’ve had the last couple of years — and then sees their own lead disappear before Girelli scores one of the best goals you’ll see this season. It was a hat trick within the span of 35 minutes of game time that not only gave her team the win, but also probably ended any sort of lingering title hopes that Roma may have had with the Poule Scudetto getting underway that same day.
You combine Girelli’s continued goal-scoring form with Sofia Cantore’s breakout season, Chiara Beccari getting her first shot at consistent minutes with Juventus and Barbara Bonansea still showing she can be a big part of this team and you’ve got a nice mix of youth and experience that is leading what is easily the highest scoring team in the league.
So as much as so many things at Juventus Women have changed, the one thing remains the same: Girelli scoring goals and lots of them — which is a huge reason as to why the Bianconere are just one win away from winning the Scudetto this season.
