Sassuolo ladies are in serie A!
Fabiana Costi: leading goal-scorer in Italy.
The Sassuolo Women’s football team has done it: next season they will be playing in Serie A.
The girls trained by Federica D’Astolfo came from behind to win the Serie B-Table B Championship. The target has been reached in record time: the ladies’ team only joined the Mapei Group stable 10 months ago.
Sassuolo started their collaboration with Reggiana Calcio Femminile, which had blue as the main colour for their playing kit. To honour the history of this all-women team from the “Città del tricolore”, blue was also used for the team’s first jersey. And blue is also the same colour used for the away strip worn by the men’s team. A champion of football and simplicity has led Sassuolo to winning their place in Serie A: Fabiana Costi, 30 years old. In just 26 games, the Sassuolo Women’s striker hit the back of the net 41 times and was the league’s leading goal-scorer. Also worthy of mention is the fact that Costi is the leading goal-scorer of both Serie B and Serie A. “I only scored one goal from a free-kick; all the other 40 were constructed through play – underlined Fabiana – which makes my record even more special”.
A lot of people call her a striker: “But really I am an attacking winger, the ladies’ Berardi”. Fabiana Costi managed to score 4 times against Padova and has scored 5 hattricks in the Championship. The series of return matches started with Vittorio Veneto leading by two points. “When we started playing the return matches we were convinced that February would have been an important launch pad for the final run in – continued Ms. Costi – and this pushed us to concentrate so much. We managed to transform every match into a final, which is why we won so many games by so many goals”.
In the return match against Vittorio Veneto at the Barison Stadium, things could have gone better for Sassuolo. The final score was 1-1, after Fabiana had put the Emilian side into the lead. “Sassuolo” played this match without some of their most important players: the centreforward Gaia Mastrovincenzo (14 goals scored during the season), who was out for a recurring muscular problem, and Lara Barbieri, who was out with a damaged cruciate ligament.
“Also – pointed out Costi – I was suffering from a viral infection. I scored the goal that gave us the lead and then we held onto this advantage until 10 minutes from the end. We were also in numerical advantage but, in spite of all this, we became distracted and the other side scored the equaliser. Maybe it was this numerical advantage that made us feel a little too confident and we allowed our concentration level to drop”. But in the analysis after the big match, the Sassuolo ladies didn’t allow their spirits to fall: “We still played really well away from home and, all in all, a final score of 1-1 was fair. Our performances and results gave us the push we needed to overtake Vittorio Veneto. When they drew the difficult game against Castelvecchio, who were third in the league, we managed to catch them up”.
The final sprint for the Sassuolo ladies was really exciting. “The best game I played in – said Fabiana – was the one we won 2-1 in the return series against Padova. In that game, as well as in the others, every girl from the Sassuolo team gave their all. A lot of the merit must also go to our trainer, D’Astolfo, who gave us the right preparation and instructions to help reduce any waste of energy and exalt all our individual qualities”. Sassuolo completed “operation overtake” by winning 1-0 against Castelvecchio: Giusy Faragò was the match-winner on the day “Vittorio” lost. For long periods during the season, Sassuolo played with Mastrovincenzo and Costi as strikers and Faragò in an attacking midfielder role. In the past, Fabiana had achieved a lot by playing in teams from large cities. “I consider this promotion to be one of the highlights of my career.
The Sassuolo Women’s team was founded thanks to their collaboration with Reggiana, which had a team in Serie A. And we have taken Reggio Emilia back into Serie A. Incorporating it with Sassuolo has proven to be extremely important: it has breathed new life into an area with a wealth of knowledge of ladies’ football. And Sassuolo can play an important part role in making ladies’ soccer even more popular. It is an honour to be a part of it”.
