Ep.22: Italy hammered by Sweden but Women’s World Cup progression still in their hands

It was a very bad day at the office for the Italian Women's National Team as they were beaten 5-0 by Sweden in their second Group G game at the 2023 Women's World Cup.Having decided to stick with her (seemingly) 4-2-3-1 formation rather than go to a back three which could be a five, Italy started the game fairly promisingly with Sofia Cantore showing a lot of willingness to run down the right.As we've become accustomed to, Italy's positive possession was not translating into actual chances and it would be remiss to say that they looked like scoring. Sweden were growing into the game and then it all went wrong for Italy. Three goals between the 39th minute and the half-time whistle meant the game was over. A fourth came just after the second-half began and the fifth arrived in stoppage time.Italy still just need a draw against South Africa to progress in the Women's World Cup, but the mood is certainly a lot worse than it was after the Argentina victory.Euan Burns, Conor Clancy and Kev Pogorzelksi are here, and all together in person, to chat through the heavy defeat.We’ve made this podcast free here but if you want to hear more about Serie A Femminile and Italian women’s football as a whole when the new season begins, be sure to sign up and listen to this Women’s Football Podcast at Patreon.com/TotalItalianFootball, where there are €2, €5 and €10 tiers available. That’ll get you bonus content from both the women’s and men’s games when the season starts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.