Juventus Women stun PSG in first leg of UWCL qualification round matchup

Today at 08:30 PM

Despite being at home, the Juve women weren't the favorites to get the early upperhand. And yet...

As has seemingly become customary every year, seeing Juventus Women get drawn against a big-time European opponent at some point in early in the qualifying process has become the norm. It's not a surprise anymore, and that's especially true the last couple of years with Juventus Women not being part of the "champions path" in qualifying as a result of winning the Scudetto.

This year was no different, with Paris Saint-Germain standing in the way of Juve either getting back into the Women's Champions League group stage or falling short of it for the second consecutive year.

What did the Bianconere do to quell those fears?

Go out and make quite a statement against one of last season's semifinalists.

Thanks to goals from Sofia Cantore — and holy smokes was that a good one — and Hanna Bennison on either side of halftime, Juventus Women were able to break a 1-all tie and take control of their UWCL qualifying round tie against PSG at the Stadio Pozzo La Marmona in Biella. While the Juve women have started the new Serie A Femminile season with two straight wins, facing a PSG side was going to be a big-time test much in the same fashion as their late-summer friendlies against Bayern Munich and Lyon. Except this time, as you know, there were plenty of stakes attached to this one — the spot in the UWCL group stage.

With the two-goal aggregate advantage heading into next Thursday's decisive second leg, all Juve will have to do is avoid disaster in Paris and they're back into the UWCL group stage for the first time in two years.

While Bennison's goal gave Juve a huge extra goal on aggregate heading to Paris, it was another summer arrival, Amalie Vangsgaard, who opened the scoring in the seventh minute before PSG tied things up 12 minutes later.

That proved to be one of the few scoring chances actually had on the night.

And that's a big deal because one of the things that has hampered Juve through their first two league fixtures has been the defense, allowing three goals to Sassuolo and two more to Como in their 4-2 win in Biella this past weekend. Both times, Juve has seen early leads suddenly disappear, thus resulting in a whole lot of unnecessary pressure suddenly to get all three points again.

But against PSG, the one goal was all that the French giants got Wednesday night. Each side managed just eight shots, with Juventus Women goalkeeper Pauline Peyraud-Magnin only facing one shot on target other than the PSG goal. And that save came in the dying moments in which the Bianconere were seeing out the game — and doing so quite well.

It all added up to quite the big night for first-year manager Massimiliano Canzi and his new-look squad that saw plenty of new arrivals sign with the club this summer. Now there's just 90 minutes to go and see out before Canzi came do something that his predecessor was able to do two years ago — get the Juve women to the UWCL group stage.