🇮🇹 Euro 2022 Player to Watch: Cristiana Girelli | OneFootball

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Italy’s men lifted the Euro 2020 trophy in England last summer. Can their women make it a clean sweep just a year later?

“I think the Euros are amazing,” star forward Cristiana Girelli declared in a recent interview with the Italy national team’s social media channel. “Especially for an Italy player, it’s an emotional occasion.

“I think we all have a lot of hunger to perform well at the tournament.”

Experience is going to be key for Le Azzurre, and Girelli – who wears number 10 for club and country – has bags of it.

Italy are also one of the more well-established women’s sides, having been founded way back in 1968.

Yet that hasn’t translated to much success, with Le Azzurre perennial tournament quarter-finalists. They have only advanced beyond that stage twice, in 1984 and 1987.

If they really are to improve on that record this time around, they will need to rely on Girelli – nicknamed Chef thanks to her love of cooking – and her goals.

At 32, she will be hoping to serve up something special for Italy this summer, as she moves into the autumn of her career.

She’s no stranger to success at club level. Born in Brescia in the north of Italy, Girelli moved from her home-town team to Juve in 2018, and has won the league in each and every campaign since.

A forward with vision and creativity as well as her ability to find the back of the net, she won the Serie A Female Player of the Year for 2020.

When Girelli has already stepped up during big moments for Juventus, it stands to reason that she will be vitally important for Italy this summer too.

Scoring a crucial last minute equaliser during the Champions League group stage, Girelli  helped her side progress from the group at the expense of Chelsea. And it’s not just her goalscoring prowess, either.

She’s willing to go the extra mile to keep her team in the game at the other end, too.

Girelli admits that the the club experience, training on the same pitch as some of the biggest stars in the men’s game, has been vitally important for her growth as a player.

“Juventus gave me a different mentality,” the Italy international told SheKicks magazine. “I hate to lose, even in training, but being at Juventus increased this even more.

“I think the national team will benefit from this, because we have many players playing for Juventus.”

While a back-to-back men’s and women’s European trophy may be a big ask, Cristiana Girelli has everything to provide the experience, winning mentality, and the goals to get Italy over that quarter-final hump.