One year and a half after the almost-win in Malmö, the Azzurre are back in Sweden for the third game in the Nations League campaign. This time, the Solna Arena will host the game against the group leaders (19:00 CEST, live on Rai Sport), where Peter Gerhardsson’s side can count on the support of 17,000 fans. It’ll be an excellent atmosphere, not to be feared by Italy who are ready to show themselves - as they have done previously - on the world stage.

Andrea Soncin spoke: “Playing in such an important setting is a source of pride for the girls. It will be motivating and even better to be able to show our skills”. And it’s exactly the word ‘skill’ used by the Coach to Vivo Azzurro TV, reaffirming the desire to get the result by putting in a big performance. “We know that we have cards up our sleeve to cause them trouble and we are working to make a difference in all phases of play. We know Sweden’s strengths well but we are focused on our identity, aware of our technical resources and our motivations to cause them a lot of trouble”

Lucia di Guglielmo is equally convinced, who after the balanced fixtures after the World Cup (the last in October 2023 with a late Sweden equaliser to end 1-1) is ready, along with her teammates and in front of FIGC General Secretary, to hunt down the win. She emphasised: “We will face a physically strong opposition with many key individuals, but we want to focus exclusively on our strengths, keep the ball in play and be aggressive from the start. Our approach will make the difference”.

The Roma defender went close to her first Azzurre goal against Sweden in Castel di Sangro, then securing it a year ago in Finland - she is sure that the slip-up against Denmark in the last Nations League game taught the squad a useful lesson: “That defeat helped us to grow in experience and allowed us to take another step forwards”, concluded the 27-year-old, star on the pitch and of the web series ‘Il futuro è donna’ (‘The future is female’), the project from the FIGC on female empowerment available from tomorrow on sostenabilia.it (in Italian). “We’d like to thank the Federation for this initiative which allows us to face current issues close to our heart: we are happy to be able to express our thoughts and experiences to those who follow us”.

‘IL FUTURO È DONNA’. In each of the six episodes of the web series, two Azzurre players will share their experiences and dive into a certain topic - from professionalism to their choices, abuse, body shaming and equal opportunity - with the aim of contributing to the growing awareness across society. Each Thursday, a new episode will be published, shown across the various FIGC channels and the sostenabilia.it platform (in Italian), created to collate in one space each of the initiatives developed as part of the Federation’s Social and Environmental Sustainability Strategy. In the first episode, available from 11:00 CEST tomorrow (in Italian), Laura Giuliani and Barbara Bonansea will talk on the topic of professionalism.

CALENDAR, RESULTS AND TABLE GROUP A4

Matchday 1: ITALY 1-0 Wales, Denmark 1-2 Sweden

Matchday 2: ITALY 1-3 Denmark, Wales 1-1 Sweden

Table: Sweden 4 points, Denmark and Italy 3, Wales 1

Matchday 3 (4 April): Sweden vs. ITALY (19:00 CEST, Solna), Wales vs. Denmark
Matchday 4 (8 April): Denmark vs. ITALY (18 CEST, Herning), Sweden vs. Wales
Matchday 5 (30 May): ITALY vs. Sweden, Denmark vs. Wales
Matchday 6 (3 June): Wales vs. ITALY, Sweden vs. Denmark