Headmaster Girelli leads Azzurre past Wales in Nations League

SWANSEA.COM STADIUM (Wales) - Set the scene - a party atmosphere, with Wales playing hosts in a 20,000-seater stadium, in front of a home crowd that will send them blissfully on their way to their first ever international tournament. Pleasant in only a thought, however, as the Italy Women's National Team arrived with a very different plan in mind. 

Andrea Soncin named a slightly different Azzurre starting XI to the one that lined up against Sweden in Parma on Friday; bringing in Martina Lenzini, Angelica Soffia and Cristiana Girelli for Lucia Di Guglielmo, Barbara Bonansea and Martina Piemonte. Despite Emma Severini playing a more advanced role days earlier, she sat in a double pivot alongside Manuela Giugliano in Swansea, with Arianna Caruso playing that higher position. 

Things were lively to start, with both sides pushing in the first ten minutes. There was a feeling of instability in the early stages, causing gaps in formation for the teams to exploit. The Azzurre's desire to bag all three points following the draw against Sweden was obvious, and they were desperate to overtake Denmark and avoid a relegation playoff. They brought immense physicality in attempts to assert dominance over the home side. 

Assert dominance they did. In the ninth minute, an Italy corner bounced off the heads of a gaggle of players and kindly into the path of an unmarked Elena Linari, who made no mistake in elaborately volleying the ball past Olivia Clark, to send the Azzurre one goal up. 

Wales did their best to retaliate after this, and found constant gaps in Italy's left hand channel. Angelica Soffia struggled to get a hold of Ceri Holland, who, along with Rachel Rowe and when in attack, often exploited this gap and Soffia looked lacking in speed and aggression, to drive a Wales attack. After getting past Soffia, Holland was able to fire a ball across the middle into the path of Carrie Jones, who’s heavy touch fell fortunately into the hands of Laura Giuliani.

Italy continued to find success in set-pieces in their second and fourth goals, with Girelli scoring from a Giugliano free-kick in the 21st minute, and again just before half-time, where the two linked up once more, but this time from a corner. 

The Azzurre's third deserves a dissection all of its own. Cristiana Girelli picked up the ball at around the 35 yard mark after a successful battle against Josie Green on the left-hand side, and drove into space before firing a cross perfectly onto the head of Sofia Cantore, who buried the ball past Clark. 

The second half saw a lot less action for Italy, but instead saw a world-class goal from Wales’ hero, Jess Fishlock. Interestingly and after no glaringly obvious injury issue, Giuliani had been replaced by Francesca Durante - a player who has played just three domestic games for Fiorentina this season.

Almost instantly after that substitution, a mix-up in the Italy midfield saw Fishlock receive the ball 25 yards out, and she spotted Durante off her line. In an incredible display of confidence and audacity, Fishlock let fly, hitting the underside of the crossbar and across the goal line. 

In all, it was a truly dominant performance from the Azzurre. There is slight concern around the depth of defensive options in the side, with Julie Piga and Soffia not exactly setting the world alight during their appearance.

But Italy are almost guaranteed goals when Girelli and Cantore lead the line. Again, as she has countless times before, Girelli shone brighter than anybody. Europe, pay her the respect she deserves or find yourselves watching her head home against you this summer.