The Women’s team made a great debut in their first friendly with a comeback win against Milan: the match ended 3-1.

Pablo Pinones Arce’s new Fiorentina team reacted well to a very tough match, against one of the most competitive teams of the upcoming season.

Milan took the lead at the start of the match: after Victoria Della Peruta’s goal at minute 10 was disallowed, Milan’s Evelyn Ijeh scored the opener. The forward broke through the Fiorentina defense and chipped the ball over goalkeeper Cecilie Fiskerstrand, scoring at minute 23. The Norwegian keeper then made two remarkable saves and blocked Monica Renzotti in a one-on-one duel.

In the second half there were many substitutions, but the match was consistent, with a lot of pressure and a high defensive line. Agnese Bonfantini scored the equaliser with a curled shot and then scored a second goal, with the ball going in off the post. Milan were under pressure and made a few plays, which were successfully blocked by Maria Luisa Filangeri and Emma Lombardi. Madelen Janogy secured the victory for Fiorentina with a right-foot shot, making the final score 3-1.

It was a great performance by the team, but there is no time to rest: tomorrow they will resume training to prepare for their second friendly of the season, scheduled for Sunday August 17 at 21:00 against Lazio in Formello.

Milan 1-3 Fiorentina (HT: 1-0)

Scorers: Ijeh (M) 23, Bonfantini (F) 51 and 59, Janogy (F) 74

AC MILAN: Estevez, Koivisto, De Sanders, Cesarini, Keijzer, Cernoia, Mascarello, Grimshaw (C), Renzotti, Ijeh, Dompig
Subs not used: Tornaghi, Sorelli, Van Dooren, Appiah, Donolato.
Coach Suzanne Bakker

ACF FIORENTINA: Fiskerstrand, Faerge, Van Der Zanden, Filangeri, Severini (C), Cherubini, Wijnants, Bredgaard, Catena, Woldvik, Della Peruta.
Subs not used: Bonfantini, Longo, Janogy, Lombardi, Bedini, Bettineschi, Cetinja, Tryggvadottir, Curmark.
Coach Pablo Pinones Arce

Booked: no one

PINONES ARCES COMMENTS ON THE TEAM’S FRIENDLY WIN AGAINST MILAN

The coach comments after the 3-1 win in Tirrenia

The team fought back. After conceding, they played as you wanted them to, they made a good comeback and won the match. 

“The team gave it their all and had the right mindset. Even though they were one goal behind at the end of the first half, they fought back and did what we’ve been working on. It’s only been one month since we started and I’m happy with what I saw in terms of mindset. In the second half I saw that although the team are tired in this part of the year, they also want to implement what we’ve been working on. They are also doing very well physically. Our opponents were very tired in the second half, while we were able to keep going.”

After a month of training, is the team already what you envisaged or are there still things you need to work on?

“There’s always work to do. In this first phase we’ve focused a lot on the physical side of it and on how we want to defend, with a high block or a mid block. We focused on having a high defensive line as well as playing out from the back, We’ll work on playing a low block too but I hope we don’t have to use it very much Anyway, we played more or less the way we wanted to play.”