WOMEN, AC MILAN v FIORENTINA: MATCH PREVIEW

For the third consecutive season, Maurizio Ganz’s Rossonere are kicking off the season on home turf, more precisely at the Centro P. Vismara - PUMA House of Football. For our girls, the 2022/23 Women’s Serie A will start with AC Milan v Fiorentina, a game that, in the past few years, has generated plenty of excitement and important results to boot. Our Match Preview takes a closer look at the upcoming showdown, which is kicking off at 17:30 CEST.

LATEST FROM THE PUMA HOUSE OF FOOTBALL
Having returned to Italy from the United States at the beginning of the week, the Rossonere have been hard at work at the end of a pre-season that has seen them take part in the Women’s Cup and face two Serie A teams in Como and Sampdoria. There were many promising signs from the AC Milan attack in the US in particular, with Asllani and Piemonte both scoring twice and Bergamaschi and Thomas also getting on the scoresheet. The hope is that the Rossonere can display all their offensive firepower in the league, too.

These are the players Coach Ganz has named in his matchday squad: Babb, Beka, Giuliani; Árnadóttir, Carage, Fusetti, Guagni, Mesjasz, Soffia, Thrige, Tucceri Cimini; Adami, K. Dubcová, Grimshaw, Mascarello, Rubio Avila, Vigilucci; Asllani, Bergamaschi, M. Dubcová, Piemonte, Thomas.

"We start the season with three very tricky matches in Fiorentina at home, Roma away and Sassuolo on home turf,” said the Coach on the eve of the game. “We’ll try to start in the right way as we look to handle what will be three high-quality fixtures as best we can.”

LATEST FROM FIORENTINA
A big name in Italian women’s football – they’ve won one Scudetto, two Coppa Italia trophies and one Supercoppa Italiana since their founding in 2015 – Fiorentina struggled last season, only securing their top-flight status on the penultimate day of the season. With Patrizia Panico remaining in the dugout, the Viola have been strengthened by the addition of several new faces this summer, including strikers Kaján and Menta from American side OL Reign and former Rossonere players Laura Agard and Miriam Longo. Francesca Vitale, Verónica Boquete and Daniela Sabatino (top scorer in Serie A last season with 15) also all spent time at AC Milan. Italy goalkeeper Schroffenegger, defenders Cafferata and Tortelli and German midfielder Breitner are also among the main names the Viola have retained in their squad.

“AC Milan have done some important business in the transfer window and will certainly want to do better than they did last season,” said Verónica Boquete during the week. “They’ve made additions to an already strong team, bringing in some high-quality players who, however, will need to adapt to a new division. This could be a strength but also a weakness, something that we need to exploit in our match against them.”

PRE-MATCH
Plenty of players will be up against their former side in AC Milan v Fiorentina. In fact, this will be the case for ten players, five on each team: Adami, Guagni, Mascarello, Piemonte and Vigilucci in the Rossonere ranks; Agard, Boquete, Longo, Sabatino and Vitale for the Viola. The two teams are set to meet for the tenth time across all competitions, with nothing to separate them in terms of the overall head-to-head record (four wins apiece and a draw). Last season, Ganz’s side recorded two victories: a 1-0 win in Tuscany and a 2-0 home success in the return fixture. Given how the teams fared in 2021/22, it comes as no surprise that the side that kept the most clean sheets last season (AC Milan, twelve) will be facing the third-worst team from last year in this regard: only Pomigliano and Hellas Verona (two) recorded fewer shutouts than Fiorentina (three). The Rossonere, who are aiming to make it five wins from five on the opening day in Serie A (they’ve scored 14 goals and conceded zero so far), were the team that scored the most goals during the first 15 minutes of play last season (ten).

LATEST FROM THE WOMEN’S SERIE A
Claudio Panettella will referee AC Milan v Fiorentina. Chichi and Chillemi will be his assistants, while Gallo will perform the role of fourth official. The 2022/23 Women’s Serie A division kicked off yesterday as newly promoted Como took on reigning champions Juventus (a 6-0 win for Juve). Today, four matches are taking place: just like Milan v Fiorentina, Pomigliano v Roma will kick off at 17:30 CEST, while Inter v Parma and Sassuolo v Sampdoria are scheduled for 20:30 CEST.

The PUMA AC Milan Kits for the 2022/23 season are available: get yours now!