Bolzano to European Championship: Italy celebrate against Finland – Women's Football

Manuela Giuliano rocked the Drususstadion with a 2-0 win. © D.Live/Lou

On Tuesday evening at the Drososstadion in Bolzano in front of 2,700 spectators, it was nothing less than qualification for the Women's European Championship. In the end, the Azores beat Finland and secured their ticket to the European Championship as group winners.

July 16, 2024

From: doing

The best footballers from Italy and Finland met at the FC Südtirol stadium and competed for a ticket to the big international event that will be held in Switzerland in July 2025. The Azzurri can now plan their trip to the neighboring country with certainty after their convincing performance against the footballers from the far north. The Italians won the last match in Group A 4-0 and thus qualified for the European Championships. Since the Netherlands only played 1-1 against Norway at the same time, the Azzurri also won the group (better goal difference).

The starting position was clear before the match: if Italy beat Finland, qualification would be a done deal. Accordingly, the Azzurri looked committed in South Tyrol, with Katja Schrövinger (Karned/on the bench) and Eva Schatzer (Fahren/not in the squad) not in the starting line-up. The Azzurri constantly took the game into the Finnish half and tried to take the initiative they deserved. Only a miss by centre-back Elena Linari, who allowed Ria Oling to run towards goal alone and almost score, prevented the Azzurri from completely dominating the first half.

The confident performance was accompanied by two goals. First, Chiara Beccari (20th) scored a header for the first time in the national team uniform, then Manuela Giuliano exploited several weaknesses in the Finnish defence to score the second goal to make it 2-0 (31st). These two goals gave the Italians a certain level of security in terms of the table. After a somewhat slow start to the second half, the Italians picked up the pace again in the last quarter of an hour.

Light Blue Target Fireworks

Andrea Sonsen's players were in good form enough to dominate Finland and score two more goals. Michela Cambiaghi (74th) made it 3-0 with a great shot from the left of the penalty area and Eva Nyström's own goal made it 4-0 (88th) to secure the win and a place in the European Championship.

Italy – Finland 4-0

Italy: Giuliani, Di Guglielmo, Linari, Salvai, Lenzini, Greggi, Caruso (from 78. Severini), Giuliano (from 65. Dragoni), Beccari (from 53. Campiagi), Giacinti (from 65. Cantori), Bonancia (from 65. Bergamo)

Finland:Tamminen, Sevenius (from 46. Hartikainen), Emmi Sirin, Nyström, Koika, Koivisto (from 24. Unna Sirin), Lindström (from 46. Sellström), Summanen (from 80. Kulanen), Oling, Alanin (from 57. Ahtinen), Rantala

SR: Ivana Bryjkovska (MKD)

Gates: 1:0 Beccari (20th), 2:0 Giuliano (31st), 3:0 Cambiaggi (74th), 4:0 Own goal Nystrom (88th)

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European Championship Qualifiers, Group A