Corelli’s Double Lifts Roma Women Past Napoli in Table-Topping Serie A Showdown
The crisp air at Stadio Giuseppe Piccolo carried the charge of early-season anticipation, but by the final whistle, it was Roma’s resilience—and the clinical finishing of Alice Corelli—that told the story of a match with implications far beyond a single Sunday. Roma’s 3-1 victory over host Napoli was not just a statement; it was the kind of performance that shapes a season and shifts a balance of power at the summit of Serie A Women.
Two unbeaten sides, each with a perfect start through two matches, brought symmetry into the afternoon: matching records, matching ambition, one point separating first from second—but the sense always that something had to give. The first half was a tense, tightly wound affair, neither attack able to find the vital incision. Napoli, riding the confidence of comeback wins—most recently a 4-3 thriller at Ternana—looked organized but wary of Roma’s deeper pedigree.
But as if on cue, Roma found their answer immediately after the interval. Giulia Dragoni, a lynchpin of Roma’s evolving midfield, broke the deadlock in the 46th minute, pouncing on a ricochet at the edge of the area and rifling a low drive into the bottom corner. The momentum shifted abruptly, and Napoli, stunned, barely had time to recalibrate before Roma struck again.
Just three minutes later, it was Alice Corelli—already so often the protagonist for this Roma side—who delivered the dagger. Corelli, lurking between defenders, latched onto a measured cross and steered her header beyond Napoli’s desperate reach at the far post in the 49th. The visitors were 2-0 up and brimming with control, while the home crowd’s optimism was suddenly muffled.
For Napoli, the match demanded an answer, but the response did not immediately come. Their vaunted attack, so effective a week earlier, met a disciplined Roma back line marshaled with composure. Still, the air of possibility lingered—twice Napoli pressed for a lifeline, only to be denied by smart positioning and, once, the frame of the goal.
Roma, meanwhile, are a team forging their identity as much through how they respond to adversity as in how they celebrate their highlights. The bruising 0-4 Champions League defeat to Barcelona midweek offered a sobering lesson in ruthlessness at the very top level. But against domestic opposition, and with the Serie A lead at stake, Corelli ensured there would be no wobble. In the 83rd minute, she completed her brace, coolly finishing a swift counterattack to seal the result and, almost certainly, top spot in the league. It was her fifth goal in league play already, a continuation of her late heroics at AC Milan just a week ago.
Napoli did not leave scoreless, as a late surge saw them grab a consolation in the 90th minute—its author a rare mystery on the team sheet tonight, a moment that brought scant solace to a crowd accustomed to fireworks. But it did little to alter the narrative: Roma’s advantage was unassailable, their statement unambiguous.
Both sides entered unbeaten, both with their eyes fixed on the summit, but it is Roma who emerge from the weekend as pace-setters, sitting alone atop the table with a maximum nine points from three matches. Napoli, for all their early promise, now find themselves chasing, their perfect run snapped and questions to answer in the coming weeks. It is a turnabout with echoes of past head-to-heads—Roma’s edge in championship experience, Napoli’s hunger to close the gap.
What lies ahead? For Roma, the road does not get easier—domestic ambitions will continue to jostle with continental ones as they seek redemption in Europe. Napoli, still very much in the title conversation, must regroup quickly; how they respond to this first setback may define their season more than any previous triumph.
This early October contest, taut with possibility and played at a championship level, may yet prove a preview of the final reckoning in May. For now, though, the city of Rome will sleep a little easier, knowing its standard-bearers stood strong when the lights were brightest.