The Italian women's hockey team has won its first historic victory at the Olympic Games, defeating France 4-1 in the first round of the group stage.
The Italian women's national team has qualified for the 2026 Olympic Games as the host nation. This is only the team's second appearance at the Olympics, having first played in 2006, where they suffered three defeats in the group stage.
Italy's first opponent was the French team, for whom this was their debut Olympics in history. Before that, the teams had met once in head-to-head matches, where France won 3-1 in the third round of qualifying for the 2016 Olympics.
How was the match between Italy and France?
- Italy were left with a deficit in the ninth minute of the first period when defender Franziska Stocker was given a two-minute suspension for tripping. Just 30 seconds later, France took the lead, with defender Gabrielle de Serres scoring the first goal of the match.
- Italy was able to restore parity in the match a minute after the conceded goal, with striker Kayla Tutino scoring her Olympic debut goal.
- Italy continued to dominate the match against France, but for a long time could not score a goal to take the lead. It was not until the 15th minute of the second period that the Italians were able to do so: Rebecca Roccella received a pass from partner Christine Rovere and sent the puck into the French goal.
- France finally lost its chance to salvage the result at the start of the third period. Already at the 14th second, 19-year-old striker of the Italian national team Mathilde Fantin scored her team's third goal and made the score 3:1, and in the fifth minute, Christine Rovere increased the difference to three goals – 4:1.
Thus, the Italian team won its first victory at the Olympics, breaking a streak of three consecutive defeats when the Italian women first appeared at the Games in 2006.
The next match at the 2026 Olympic Games will be played by the Italian women's national team against Sweden, and the game will take place on Saturday, February 7, at 3:40 p.m. Kyiv time.