Gallery: Roma Women build big first leg advantage

Roma Women put themselves in a commanding position to reach the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia with an emphatic 6-1 victory over San Marino Academy on Saturday.

In the first leg of the quarter-final tie, the Giallorosse travelled to face the Serie B high flyers and wasted little time in taking control of the tie, as Angelica Soffia grabbed her first-ever goal for the club.

Soffia’s strike might have been somewhat fortuitous – her deep cross flying in at the back post – but there was nothing lucky about the rest of the performance, with Roma adding further goals at regular intervals.

Allyson Swaby, back in the team after international duty, doubled the advantage before the break as she headed home from a corner, before Andressa Alves converted a penalty early in the second half.

A quick-fire double from Agnese Bonfantini and captain Elisa Bartoli only enhanced Roma’s position, with over an hour still remaining in the game.

From that point the Giallorosse rather eased to the finish line - before Amalie Thestrup rounded off the scoring for the visitors with a clinical finish in the final few minutes.

That was not the end of the scoring entirely, however, as San Marino pounced on a defensive mistake to grab a consolation goal in the dying embers of the contest.

“We are building our confidence, we are on the right path," Soffia said afterwards.

"We’re growing as a team, we’re getting more cohesive and I think you are starting to see that on the pitch.

“In the first half we wanted to take control of the game but we struggled with some of our passing. At half-time we understood that we needed to try and stretch the play a bit more, using the flanks.”

The Giallorosse are back in league action next week - as they face Verona.

“I don’t think any of us underestimated this game, but perhaps after we were able to make it 2-0 we began to think it would be easier than it was," Bavagnoli noted.

"We won’t make the same mistake in upcoming games.”

The two sides return for the second leg at Stadio Tre Fontane on February 26.

See more photos from the game in our match gallery.

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