Como Women-Sampdoria ends 2-2 with goals from Nischler and Bolden

The match between Como Women and Sampdoria, valid for the fourth day of the Serie A women's eBay Safety Pool, was played at the "Ferruccio" stadium in Seregno.

The first half between Como Women and Sampdoria saw both teams featuring several goal opportunities. The match came alive already in the 12th minute, when Como Women came close to taking the lead with a volley from Del Estal that hit the crossbar. Despite the good intentions of Stefano Sottili's girls, it was Sampdoria who broke the deadlock exactly a minute later with Burbassi, who, on Samp’s first real chance, controlled the ball with his chest and with a right-footed diagonal beat Gilardi, putting the "Blucerchiate" in the lead. Como Women responded promptly, creating more important opportunities. At the 18th minute, Guagni delivered a perfect ball into the middle from the left, but Karlernäs headed another onto the crossbar, denying Como the equaliser as did Picchi's right-foot shot in the 33rd minute, which crashed against the top part of Larsen’s goal. The deserved equaliser, however, came in the 36th minute thanks to Nischler, who took advantage of a ball left in the area and quickly turned to score his eighth goal of the season. For the Alto Adige player, the goal had been missing since the last championship game against the "Blucerchiate."

The second half opened in the 49th minute with another good chance, again for Nischler, with a volley a few metres from goal. Then, in the 56th minute, Sampdoria took the lead thanks to a precise cross from the right by Bertucci that found Re's head, bringing the score to 2-1 for the visiting team. Despite conceding the goal, the "lariane" kept pushing and creating chances, first in the 71st minute with Picchi curling a shot from the edge of the area, then in the 73rd minute with Kramzar trying a nice play, bypassing Pisani with a feint and forcing Larsen to make a corner save on his powerful left foot. In the 77th minute, Nischler had another opportunity with a header from an Engman cross, but the ball went just wide. Como Women's pressure continued until injury time, when in the 93rd minute, the deserved equaliser came with Bolden finding the 2-2 goal in a scramble, thus sealing the final draw with her first goal in the championship wearing the Como Women jersey.

Sottili's team's next match will be on Sunday 30 March at 12:30 against Napoli at the "Giuseppe Piccolo" stadium in Cercola (NA) where they will have to defend the top position in the Safety Pool, now at 29 points.

Post-match comments:

The joy of Sarina Bolden at the end of the match: "I am happy to have finally been able to contribute to the team and lend a small hand. Sampdoria did not make things easy, so credit to them today. I am glad we didn't give up and fought until the end to earn a point. Obviously, we would have liked the 3 points. Now we look forward to the next match against Napoli where we will be hungry for a better result."

These are the words of Dominika Conc: “I don't know if this result is fair or not, but we needed to score. In my opinion, we were the better team, but when you create many chances you also have to capitalise on them, so this aspect needs improvement ahead of the next match. Also, at the back, we need to have more concentration. The pitch was not in good condition for both teams, but they played their game and in this they were good.”

The match analysis by Stefano Sottili: “We managed to create many chances that unfortunately we did not capitalise on. If I have to point something out to the team, we allowed too many clean and simple chances to our opponents, and we cannot afford this, especially in foreseeable situations. Unfortunately, we are still unable to manage them as best as we can and we risked paying a high price. Obviously, if we look at the scoring chances allowed and the scoring chances had, there's no comparison. Even in the end stages of the season we had important opportunities that we didn't capitalise on and then we conceded goals. We went from Del Estal's crossbar to conceding a goal and, in the end, the equaliser came in the action following their glaring chance for 1-3. It's a bit of the law of football, but I think the equaliser could have come earlier. There are many positive notes, certainly more than the negatives. But we need to be aware of the mistakes and reflect on them to grow and improve. Without taking anything away from Sampdoria, who at this moment are last in the standings, we drew twice at home and won away perhaps in the game where we created the least. Football is sometimes unusual. 

On the team's performance and the first goal with the Como Women shirt by Sarina Bolden: “That said, the positive notes are indeed there: the girls wanted to recover the match in every possible way and they gave everything. I am happy for Bolden's goal because she comes from a complicated season and I hope it will be the spark for a good end to the season.”

Match summary

Como Women Formation: 22 Gilardi; 3 Guagni (60’ Engman), 24 Rizzon, 11 Conc (79’ Hansen), 2 Marcussen (60’ Bergersen); 20 Vaitukaityte, 21 Picchi (79’ Bolden), 16 Karlernäs (60’ Kerr); 7 Nischler, 33 Kramzar, 9 Del Estal. Coach: Stefano Sottili

Available: 12 April, 13 Liva, 17 Sagen, 25 Marchiori, 29 Dogliani, 36 Soggiu.

Sampdoria Line-up: 16 Larsen; 26 Bertucci, 23 Pisani, 11 Heroum, 3 Nano; 44 Barbieri, 18 Burbassi (88’ Rosignoli), 21 Re (61’ Colombo), 40 Fallico; 24 Baldi, 17 Llopis (65’ Pittaccio). Manager: Fabrizio Casazza

Available: 2 Panzeri, 7 Arcangeli, 8 Bercelli, 10 Evans, 14 Cimo Pellegrino, 35 Zilli, 36 Nespolo.

Goals: 13’ Burbassi (Sampdoria), 36’ Nischler (Como Women), 56’ Re (Sampdoria), 90’ + 3' Bolden (Como Women)

Yellow Cards: 57’ Barbieri (Sampdoria), 90’ + 3’ Baldi (Sampdoria)

Red Cards: 0

MVP : Nadine Nischler

Referee and Assistants: Davide Gandino, Alessandro Rastelli, Giampaolo Jorgji and Gianluca Guitaldi