Giulia Dragoni is preparing to face Roma for Chelsea again, and this time the 19-year-old will do it wearing the blue shirt she once thought was out of reach. Less than a year after starting for Roma against Chelsea in the UEFA Women’s Champions League, Dragoni is set for another reunion with her former club at Plough Lane.
The timing makes the match feel bigger than a routine league-phase fixture. Chelsea and Roma are meeting again in European competition tonight, and Dragoni has already lived the most vivid version of this tie: Roma visiting Stamford Bridge in December last year, when Chelsea won 6-0 without reply. Wieke Kaptein, Sjoeke Nusken, Maika Hamano and Lucy Bronze were among the scorers that night, and Dragoni remembers the size of the occasion as much as the scoreline.
If someone had told her then that she would soon be in a Chelsea shirt, she said, she would have answered, “What are you saying?... That's not true!” She described it as a dream to play at Stamford Bridge as a Chelsea player and called it an honour. She also said Chelsea had a big name and a big reputation when Roma came there last year, and that the ground itself was amazing. The result, she added, was not the best for Roma, even if the night was still fun.
There is no neat way to remove the emotion from a match like this. Dragoni said she had been speaking with some of the Roma players and that both sides were excited to see each other again, but she also called it a really interesting game and a tough one. Roma, she said, are good on the ball and will arrive confident after beating Juventus 5-2 last weekend, without being afraid of Chelsea. That leaves Chelsea with a familiar opponent and a player who knows both dressing rooms well, even if she is still finding her own place in this one.
That adjustment has been steady rather than immediate. Dragoni has made four substitute appearances in 11 matches so far this season, a sign of how carefully Chelsea are easing her into a squad that asks for speed and detail. She said football in Italy is different from the Women’s Super League, with a much higher intensity, quicker decisions on the ball and less time to think. She added that Chelsea are focused on details, which helps explain why a teenager who shone for Roma is now being asked to learn a new rhythm before she is asked to lead it.
Dragoni said her time in Italy was really nice and that winning the Scudetto and the Coppa Italia were among her best moments there. Her last game in a Roma shirt, she said, was emotional too. Tonight, though, the emotions belong to Chelsea and Roma together, and the next chapter is straightforward: a place in the league phase standings will be shaped by a match that is also a personal return for one of the players on the pitch.
