Lipman eager to underline side's growth against Juventus

Betty Bavagnoli’s side travel to face the Bianconere for the second time in the current campaign at the weekend, having lost the first meeting at Stadio Tre Fontane 4-0.

Lipman believes that the group have improved significantly since that home defeat, however, and will be emboldened by their last three performances – which have seen the Women bounce back from deficits to emerge victorious.

“We had another comeback at the weekend, against Verona,” Lipman told Roma TV.

“We showed a few weeks before against Sassuolo that we are capable of doing it. I think the difference now with this team is that we believe that we can still win games, even if we go behind. Maybe at the start of the season, when we were growing and learning as a team, maybe we did not have the belief that we do now.

"Showing it again, against Verona, has proved that we can continue to learn and believe in what this team is capable of.

“The team is growing all the time. The environment that has been created by the staff and the players – we are all so much more positive and excited about what we can achieve by the end of the season. We want the games to come as quickly as possible so we can show what we are doing every day in training.

"I think that the start of 2019 has shown that we can come back from games, we don’t have to take the lead, we can fight back – it’s good.”

On that first meeting against Juve, she added: “I think it was a good test for us, to have it so early in the season, and it showed us that we had a lot of work to do.

“Juventus are a very strong team – they won the league last year and they are top at the moment. Maybe we needed that sort of test to show where we really were as a group. But since then we’ve grown so much and I think on Sunday it will be a perfect opportunity to see how far we’ve come.

“I think maybe in the first game we gave them a bit too much respect - but rightly so - but we will see what happens this weekend. I think we can give them a real game.”

On Wednesday the team beat Roma CF 6-3 in the first leg of their Coppa Italia quarter-final – decent preparation for the return to league action.

“The cup is anyone’s,” Lipman said. “It’s on the day, whichever team is the best.

“As we keep growing and learning and improving as a team then I think we can beat anyone on our day – I really do – and so the cup for us has to be a possibility. It would be really nice to end the season with some silverware. We take each game as it comes – and if that includes the cup then that is great for us.”

Lipman, unlike many of her teammates, is in her second season in Serie A – having played for Verona last term. One of the more senior members available to Bavagnoli, she admits she has a unique role within the squad in many ways.

“I knew what I was coming into when I started, I knew it was going to be a very young squad,” the former Manchester City defender said.

“A young team, growing, with lots of great ambitions for the future. I knew I wasn’t coming into something that was fully finished and pushing for the league straight away – but I knew the potential and ambition was there.

"So in the first few months I think I needed to find my role, needed to help with some of my experience – but also learn from some of the older Italian players as well. And the younger ones, even. It has been a fantastic opportunity for me to help others, but also to learn a lot too.

“I came into the season with no expectations. For me personally, I want to keep growing as a leader. I want to use my experience to help others on and off the pitch. If I can do that, and help grow this team, then I will be really happy with that.

“From a football point of view I want to play at the highest level I can, and this club has massive aspirations. If we can make the Champions League, maybe next year, then that is what I will be striving for.”

With Roma not the only famous Italian club to have recently made the move into women’s football, Lipman is predicting a bright future for the game.

“The league is growing all the time, the standard, the level of players that are coming to the league,” she said.

“It’s great personally, because I want to be playing against good players and also for the Italian league, because the standard is going to get better. Last year [with Verona] it was different, because I had no idea what Italian football was like and I needed to learn a lot about the league whereas this year it is really good to be competitive, with the Italian internationals and the foreigners coming into the league.

“So I can only see the league growing in one direction – and as long as that keeps pushing me and the team forward then that is only a good thing.”