Conor Clancy tells us all the important stuff about Le Azzurre ahead of Euro 2022.
The Italian women’s national team are everything that the men aren’t, as the Azzurre made crystal clear by doing what the Azzurri couldn’t in beating Switzerland away from home in a crunch game to all-but secure their place at a major tournament.
Milena Bertolini has a very complete side at her disposal, and with Serie A Femminile having officially become recognised as a professional league on July 1, they’ll be wanting to have yet another reason to make the summer of 2022 a memorable one as they compete in Group D alongside Belgium, France and Iceland.
Beyond the talent they have though, the mentality of this group of players is largely shaped by the Juventus core that Bartolini’s squad has, with nine of the 23 coming into the tournament as Serie A, Coppa Italia, and Supercoppa Italiana champions with the Bianconere. That was best seen away at Switzerland in April, when they knew they had to win against their qualification rivals and a late Cristiana Girelli free-kick sent them above the Swiss and into top spot, now in pole position to see out the group and qualify for the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
The announcement of this summer’s 23 didn’t come without controversy though, and most of that surrounded the exclusions of Roma duo Annamaria Serturini and Giada Greggi, both key players at the Giallorosse and two of the reasons that Roma made it to the Coppa Italia final and secured second place in Serie A, having been arguably Italy’s best team for the second half of the campaign.
With the tournament kicking off on Wednesday, July 6, as hosts England face Austria, we’re taking a look at five of the players that are worth keeping an eye on in the Azzurre squad. It should be noted that we’ve tried to mix things up as much as possible in an effort to not just list five Juventus players.
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