ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

This article is about the Italian national football team of women at the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France. Italy took part in the final for the third time. Most recently, the Italian women took part in 1999.

Qualification
Opponents in qualifying were Belgium, for the first time Moldova, Portugal and Romania. The group winner could qualify directly, the group second would be qualified for the playoff games for another World Cup starting place, if he were one of the four best group second.

The qualification was the first task of the new national coach Milena Bertolini, who took over the office of Antonio Cabrini in August 2017.

The Italian team began with a 5-0 home win against Moldova. It followed victories against Romania (1:0 and 3:0), in Portugal (1:0) and Moldova (3:1), before it came to the meeting with the sharpest rival Belgium. With 2:1 after 0:1 behind was a preliminary decision in the fight for the World Cup ticket. By a 3-0 against Portugal on 8. In June 2018, the Italians qualified as the first European team for the World Cup finals. In the last game there was a 1:2 defeat against Belgium, but the Belgians had only reached a 1:1 in the home game against Portugal in April 2018, they lacked two points in the end despite better goal difference to qualify for a World Cup final for the first time. Because in the playoffs of the best group runners they remained unbeaten against Switzerland, but were eliminated due to the away goal rule after a 2:2 in the home game and a 1:1 away draw.

A total of 26 players were used, of which 17 were already in the squad for the European Championships 2017. Only Barbara Bonansea and Cristiana Girelli played all eight games. On seven missions came Aurora Galli, goalkeeper Laura Giuliani and captain Sara Gama, who had taken over the office after the European Championship from the retired captain Melania Gabbiadini.

The most goals for the Italian team were scored by Cristiana Girelli (7). A total of eight Italian players scored 17 goals in qualifying, they also benefited in the 1-0 victory against Romania from the own goal of the Romanian Andreea Corduneanu, who also received the yellow-red card in the injury time, and in the 3-1 against Moldova from another own goal.

Games

Preparation
In preparation for the World Cup, first test matches were held on 9 October in Cremona against Sweden (1:0) and on 10 November in Osnabrück against Germany (2:5). In January 2019, the Italians won against World Cup newcomer Chile on 18th in Empoli with 2:1 and Wales on 22nd in Cesena with 2:0. At the end of February/beginning of March, the Italian women took part in the Cyprus Cup for the tenth time. After winning against Mexico (5:0), World Cup participants Thailand (4:1) and Hungary (3:0), the final was reached as in the previous year. Here they met North Korea, which could not qualify for the World Cup. In a turbulent