Juventus Women head into Phase 2 of Serie A Femminile season in second place

With no European football to think about during the early months of the 2023 calendar year, all of Juventus Women’s attention can be turned toward trying to repeat the domestic double that they won last season. While the Coppa Italia rolls on and Juve find themselves in the semifinals of the Coppa Italia against Inter, trying to make it six straight Scudetti is a completely different matter entirely.

And it will come with a different twist on the final months of the season, too.

With Sunday afternoon’s 2-1 win over Parma in the rain at Vinovo, Phase 1 of the 2022-23 Serie A Femminile season has officially come to an end. (The win, however, had a bit of a somber feeling at the final whistle because midfielder-turned-center back Martina Rosucci had to come off injured during the final 10 minutes of play, with early reports saying it’s a knee sprain but further tests will be done Monday.) Juventus Women, who have not had the straightforward league campaign like they’ve had in previous years, trail first-place Roma by eight points in the league table heading into the first year of the Phase 2 portion of the schedule.

This new-look schedule is, of course, different from the normal fixture list that we’re all used to when each team plays each other twice and it’s something that we know was going to be the case when the schedule was first announced back in late July.

The 10-team league will now be broken into two groups — the top five in the “Poule Scudetto” will fight it out for the league title with the bottom half, “Poule Salvezza,” will look to avoid relegation. There will be a total of eight games for the two groups, with Juventus Women playing the other four teams in their group — Roma, Inter, AC Milan and Fiorentina — two times apiece to determine who wins the title.

Based on points, it’s Roma’s title to lose at this point, with the Giallorosse also competing on multiple fronts in the Coppa Italia and the Women’s Champions League knockout rounds.

But with two more direct matchups against Roma now on the schedule, Juventus can cut the different between first and second place down to two points if the Bianconere can win both. Roma suffered two losses during Phase 1 of the season — both of which came at the hands of Juventus.

A schedule for Phase 2 of the Serie A Femminile season has yet to be announced.