“We faced a really strong team, certainly superior to us. In the first half, we were poor because we didn’t do what we said we would do. We didn’t try to contain their quality, on the contrary, we let them show it off”, said Head Coach Milena Bertolini immediately after the 5-1 crushing defeat to France. “They deserved a five-goal lead in the first half. Probably, that first chance of the game that we had gave us the illusion that we could play on the front foot, but against them you can’t. The first two goals psychologically affected us, but from the third we caved in. But we’ll take away the second half reaction and performance, where we were tighter and stayed united”.

Martina Piemonte, scorer of the Italy goal, instead made a rallying cry ”My goal gave us some spirit because until the final second, we never gave up. France are a really strong team, we faced one of the best teams in Europe. We knew it was always gonna be to be a tough ask. This goal needs to give us some hope and spirit, because we need to win our next two games” – concluded the striker – “Iceland and Belgium are at our level, they are very winnable. We need to believe it from the first minute”.

“The result says 5-1 but we didn’t take advantage of our chances. We’ll take away the second half reaction, that will help us for the following games”, the analysis from Cristiana Girelli, upset by the disappointing first half. “A game of sacrifices, which I expected, where I had to lead the line to get the team higher up the pitch. We tried to play but were stunned by those early goals. We are angry after this result because Italy should never lose with such a scoreline, but we still have our destiny in our own hands and we will show it”.