Cittadella 0-2 AC Milan Women: Key moments, highlights and what comes next

AC Milan Women managed to beat Lady Granata Cittadella by a score of 2-0 to begin their Coppa Italia Femminile campaign in style.

They now sit on top of Group A and are on level points with Hellas Verona. Here’s a summary of how they won that match.

The Formations

Cittadella (4-4-2): Toniolo; La Rocca, Ripamonti, Masu, Fracaros; Peruzzo (58′ Meneghetti), Pizzolato (68′ Zanni), Domi (58′ Nurzia), Corazzi; Vecchione (80′ Zannini), Lattanzio (80′ Begal)

AC Milan (3-4-2-1): Korenčiová (73′ Fedele); Árnadóttir, Agard, Fusetti; Rizza, Adami (65′ Selimhodzic), Grimshaw, Tucceri Cimini; Longo (73′ Miotto), Jonušaitė (54′ Giacinti); Stapelfeldt (65′ Thomas)

The Match

As we noted before, there was expected to be a turnover for this match.

Maurizio Ganz left captains Valentina Bergamaschi and Valentina Giacinti on the bench and inserted Rimantė Jonušaitė and Federica Rizza into the lineup. Korenčiová and Longo also started in the place of Giuliani and Thomas, respectively.

The Rossonere got off to a promising start as they would have the first chance of the game. Linda Tucceri Cimini’s cross found Miriam Longo. who narrowly missed the target. Afterward, Milan struggled to attack Cittadella, who battened down the hatches and defended with determination.

Despite this, the Rossonere continued probing to find an opening in their adversaries’ defense. Grimshaw threatened the host’s goal twice, at both the 24rh and 37th minute. Two minutes later, Longo would, unfortunately, miss another good opportunity.

The fortress walls were finally breached in the 42nd minute when Stapelfeldt got behind the Granata’s defense and slid a ball into the corner of the net. Citadella would not take this lying down and fired back near the halftime interval. Thankfully, Milan’s Mária Korenčiová parried Pizzolato’s shot and it went wide of the goal.

The second half began with the same lineups for both teams. Twelve minutes later, Stapelfeldt had the first chance of the half. Sadly, she could not convert her shot.

Nina was feeling dangerous and was not content with just scoring. At the 61st minute, the Swiss forward laid the ball on the plate for Giacinti, who tapped it into the goal. Giacinti scored seven minutes after she was substituted into the match, thus showing how invaluable she is to the team.

Not content to sit back, the Diavole continued to push forward to try to add to their lead. Giacinti came close to scoring a second time in the 72 minute. Longo would pounce on the rebound but saw her effort blocked by Ilaria Toniolo just a minute later. The hosts, however, would not go quietly and tested Korenčiová two minutes later with a shot on target.

Shortly afterward, Noemi Fedele made her debut for the team in the 73rd minute. She had to remain vigilant in the final stages of the game for Milan to keep their clean sheet. Fortunately for her, the Rossonere had the majority of chances for the rest of the match.

Giorgia Miotto struck with her left foot in the 89th minute but the Granata’s Toniolo did just enough to keep it out of goal.

The last chance of the game for the Rossonere fell to Noa Selimhodzic, whose shot sailed over the crossbar.

In the end, it didn’t matter, as Milan emerged from the match with all three points.