PLENTY OF HEART BUT DEFEAT FOR THE ROSSONERE

It was a good AC Milan performance, even if the result didn’t end in the Rossonere’s favour. The team played with heart, sacrifice and, in spells, quality, but it wasn’t quite enough. In their Serie A Femminile opener, Ganz’s girls suffered a late 4-2 defeat to Roma at the PUMA House of Football. After heading into the break two behind, the Rossonere managed to draw level through goals from Dompig and substitute Marinelli and, for large parts of the match, matched the Giallorosse, the current Italian champions.

However, in the closing stages, the experience of Spugna’s side allowed them to triumph, with Greggi finding the net and Glionna adding a fourth for Roma. The result is a bitter one, but the performance - both collectively and from various individuals – augurs well for the season. There are plenty of new players in this AC Milan team and, with a few more games under their belts, they can certainly bring us some joy. The league will now immediately come to a halt for the upcoming international fixtures, after which the Rossonere will return to the pitch away to Napoli at 12:30 CEST on Sunday 1 October.

CHECK OUT THE GALLERY FROM AC MILAN v ROMA

MATCH REPORT
Both teams started the match tentatively as they looked to figure each other out. The first big chance came the Rossonere’s way in the 13th minute: at the end of a counter-attack orchestrated by Bergamaschi, Árnadóttir attempted a lob but without success. Roma responded four minutes later with an effort from Grimshaw, who did well to create space for herself but failed to find the target. The visitors opened the scoring after 36 minutes as Linari got on the end of a free-kick to finish from close range. Three minutes later, the Giallorosse doubled their advantage through Haavi, who robbed Árnadóttir of the ball and beat Giuliani.

The Rossonere started the second half with real aggression and pulled one back through Dompig, who let fly with a fine right-footed strike from the edge of the box to make it 2-1 (50’). Stašková sent a header narrowly wide shortly afterwards, but Ganz’s side didn’t have to wait too much longer for an equaliser (61’): after a scramble in the box involving Stašková and Marinelli, the latter managed to fire home just a minute after coming on (2-2). On her competitive Rossonere debut, Gloria thus found the net in Serie A again for the first time in 385 days. However, with the game evenly balanced, Roma restored their lead in the 80th minute through Greggi, whose fantastic right-footed strike finished in the bottom corner. Then, on the counter, Glionna made it 4-2 to put the game to bed.

MATCH DETAILS

AC MILAN 2-4 ROMA

AC MILAN (4-3-3): Giuliani; Guagni, Árnadóttir, Swaby, Bergamaschi (68' Thrige); Adami (75' Mascarello), Cernoia, Grimshaw (60' Marinelli); Laurent (75' Asllani), Stašková, Dompig. Substitutes: Copetti; Fusetti, Soffia; Asllani, Arrigoni, Jonušaitė. Coach: Ganz. 

ROMA (4-3-3): Ceasar; Bartoli, Minami, Linari, Di Guglielmo; Feiersinger (64' Greggi), Kumagai, Giugliano; Viens (64' Glionna), Giacinti (89' Kramzar), Haavi (92' Serturini). Substitutes: Korpela; Aigbogun, Latorre, Tomaselli, Valdezate. Coach: Spugna. 

Referee: Castellone from Naples
Goals: 36' Linari (R), 39' Haave (R), 50' Dompig (M), 61' Marinelli (M), 80' Greggi (R), 93' Glionna (R).

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