With the UEFA qualification campaign for the 2019 Women's World Cup underway, one of the teams who was starting a new chapter was Italy as they commenced life under newly-appointed coach Milena Bertolini, who earlier this summer replaced Antonio Cabrini following the disappointment at the Women's European championships.
Group 6
With only three games played in the group, not much can be said on who are the favourites to top the qualifying group. Nonetheless, one can already have an indication of how will Bertolini handle the Italy WNT and also of the offensive force that Belgium boast.
In fact, the latter hammered minnows Moldova 12-0 in their opener with Janice Cayman of Montpellier scoring a poker while Wolfsburg's star Tessa Wullaert adding a hat-trick to it.
Belgium will host Romania on October 20 before embarking on a tough trip as they face Portugal away from home four days later.
Meanwhile, group leaders Italy, with two games played, defeated Moldova 5-0 at home and managed to scrape past Romania with a slender win away from home.
In their group opener, Barbara Bonansea, now at Juventus, was devastating and had a say in every goal with either an assist or a goal. In their first match, all their attacking department members managed to score - Bonansea, Daniela Sabatino, Cristina Girelli and Valentina Bergamaschi.
Yet, against Romania, they had to wait until 77 minutes to break the duck through an own-goal of Andreea Corduneanu.
Italy's next match will be a rematch with the Romanians at home in October.
Group 6 will probably see a three-horse race between Italy, Belgium and Portugal for the group leadership and their direct encounters will be crucial as who will drop points will probably remain home during the summer of 2019.
All three teams participated during last summer's Women's European championship and having left with a bitter taste due to early eliminations, they will be striving to reach the World Cup and leave a vivid impression of themselves.