Women’s national team, Italy slows down in Europe: Finland wins 2-1

After Cosenza’s convincing victory in the debut match against the Netherlands, the women’s national team fails to repeat itself and falls against an excellent Finland (2-1) in Helsinki on the second day of group 1 of qualifying for Euro2025. The Italians appeared a little too imprecise and surprised by the speed and physical strength of their opponents.

Italy on the field with 4 changes compared to Holland

Soncin offers 4 changes compared to the lineup that took the field on Friday. In defense, replacing Bartoli, is Di Guglielmo, with Boattin and the central pair of captain Linari and Lenzini completing the unit ahead of Giuliani. We see Galli again from the 1st minute, lined up next to Caruso and Giugliano, while up front Bonansea and Bonfantini give way to Cambiaghi and Cantore, who act on either side of Giacinti. The hosts respond with a 4-4-2 in which the quality of Summanen and Sällström stands out, Finland’s all-time top scorer with 59 goals, 3 of which were scored against the Italians. Sampdoria midfielder Heroum and Como striker Sevenius start from the bench, the only ‘Italian’ to start is Korpela, Roma’s 37-year-old reserve goalkeeper. In order not to concede superiority in midfield, Italy starts with a 4-3-3 in which Cantore supports the midfield in the defensive phase, Galli moves to the right and Cambiaghi centralizes his position to support the Giallorossi striker .

Di Guglielmo surprises Finland

The hosts – driven by the over 5 thousand spectators present in the stadium – imposed a frenetic pace on the match and in the first half hour Italy struggled to enter the opponent’s area. But at the first mistake of the Saloranta players the Italians scratched and found the advantage: in the 39th minute Cambiaghi took advantage of Koivisto’s failure to intervene and launched a cross which was blocked by the defence, Di Guglielmo pounced on the ball and fired a shot from the edge which thanks to Kosola’s deviation ends its run under the crossbar. In his 24th appearance the Roma full-back found his first goal for the national team.

Rantala and Summanen overturn the result

The joy lasts a handful of minutes, because at the start of the second half Rantala, the 25-year-old Leicester striker, surprises the Italian defense with a shot from the edge of the area that Giuliani only manages to graze. In the 60th minute Greggi and Beccari replace Caruso and Giacinti, in the 69th minute Girelli comes in for Cambiaghi, and also thanks to the freshness of the new players, Italy’s forcing becomes more confident. However, Finland shows that it believes in victory and in the 75th minute, following a corner, Summanen shoots at Linari and the trajectory becomes unstoppable.

Now double challenge to Norway

At that point Soncin also throws Piedmont into the fray and lines up with the 4-2-4 in search of an equalizer. In the 7′ of injury time the Scandinavians defended their lead and at the final whistle they rejoiced together with their fans. Italy is now awaiting another (double) Scandinavian test: the journey will start again on Friday 31 May with the match against Norway at home, while the replay with reversed pitches is scheduled for Tuesday 4 June.

Soncin: “We paid for their physicality”

The Italian coach Andrea Soncin explains the defeat like this: “The start was complicated then we found a good set-up. We could have done much better in the second part of the match, the girls tried until the end to reach the draw and we created some situations that we should have managed better. This match teaches us a lot, we found an opponent who exploited their physicality and dirty balls, which is a shame because we could have approached the second half in a different way.”