Serie A is back and so is our matchday preview! And with the hope that fans will be slowly allowed back into stadiums as the season progresses, excitement is growing among Italian football followers.
Unfortunately, some fans will have to wait a bit longer to see their teams in action. Inter and Atalanta’s matches against Benevento and Lazio were pushed back until the end of September as both Nerazzurri teams were involved in European competitions last month. While newcomers Spezia left it late to secure promotion and got an extra week’s rest to prepare for their top-flight debut.
But don’t worry! We still have plenty to look forward to in this opening weekend of fixtures. So let’s get right to it!
Juventus – Sampdoria
All eyes will be on the new Juve head coach Andrea Pirlo and how he will handle his first official game in charge of the Old Lady. The Juve hierarchy took a gamble when appointing the inexperienced Pirlo to take the top job at the club, but the former World Cup winner will take inspiration from the Zinedine Zidane and Pep Guardiola experiments to write his own success story with the Bianconeri.
While acquiring his coaching badges, Pirlo’s cited the Barcelona teams of Johan Cruijff and Guardiola, the Ajax of Louis Van Gaal, the Milan of Carlo Ancelotti, and the Juve of Antonio Conte as sides that have influenced his idea of how to play football. If Pirlo manages to emulate the successes and styles of these historic teams, then we are in for a treat.
He will first have to come up against legendary manager Claudio Ranieri and his stubborn Sampdoria side. The Roman Ranieri will fancy his chances in staging an upset at the home of the 9-time champions and will count on Fabio Quagliarella, a former Pirlo teammate at Juve, to guide the Blucerchiati to victory.
Fiorentina – Torino
Before that much-anticipated encounter in Turin, Serie A’s curtain-raiser will be in the capital of Tuscany. Fiorentina have bolstered their squad with Giacomo Bonaventura, Alfred Duncan, Christian Kouamé, and the return of old club servant Borja Valero. The burden will be on manager Giuseppe Iachini to find the right balance in the squad and enhance La Viola’s disappointing campaign last term.
Newly-appointed Torino manager Marco Giampaolo also had his share of disappointments last year, with Milan giving him the sack after just seven matches in charge of the Rossoneri. Torino got off to a winning start last season, and Giampaolo wouldn’t mind his star striker Andrea Belotti and Co. giving their manager a similar beginning this time out, either.
Verona – Roma
Ivan Juric’s side was the surprise package last season after finishing ninth and will welcome Roma to the Marc’Antonio Bentegodi Stadium and will attempt to snatch a victory against the Romans for the first time since 1996.
If rumors are true, then Roma are about to lose their captain and top goalscorer Edin Džeko to rivals Juve in the coming days. If so, Paulo Fonseca’s side will have to conjure up a different source for goals. Perhaps, the answer lies with 33-year-old Pedro freshly signed from Chelsea on a free transfer. The Spaniard has an excellent record in opening fixtures as he has registered eight goals in his last eight matchday one appearances in La Liga and the Premier League.
Parma – Napoli
Parma did the double over Napoli last season and victory on Sunday will guarantee new manager Fabio Liverani gets off on the right foot at the Ennio Tardini. As new owner Kyle Krause takes over the helm in the gastronomical city, Liverani will hope to entertain his new boss with a delicious feast of mouthwatering goals and a tasty dish of Tre Punti.
Meanwhile, Napoli’s owner Aurelio Di Laurentiis will have to be contented with a famous Neapolitan pizza as he recovers from contracting COVID-19 last week. Manager Gennaro Gattuso aims to express his gratitude to his president, who earlier this summer secured the signing of Nigerian sensation Victor Osimhen from Lille for a club-record fee of 70M euros.
Genoa – Crotone
Speaking of Nigerian sensations, Crotone’s Nigerian forward Simy will also be one to watch this season as he finished last year as Serie B’s top goalscorer with 20 goals. The Calabrian side, dubbed as Gli Squali or The Sharks, were first promoted to Serie A back in 2016, and against whom did they score their first-ever top-flight goal?
You guessed it. It was Genoa! The Griffin barely escaped relegation last term, and new manager Rolando Maran will hope to get off to a flying start as he did with his Cagliari side last season. He will just pray the deterioration his former side experienced later on in Sardinia is not replicated in Liguria, or else…?
Sassuolo – Cagliari
Roberto De Zerbi’s young guns at Sassuolo enter the new season with an eye on solidifying the plaudits they received last year – most notably from Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola – who admitted to being impressed by the Neroverdi’s expansive style of play. And as the Emilia Romagna side celebrate their centenary this year, they will be extra motivated to cap off their first match of the new season with a win.
But they will have to battle with a familiar face who played a significant part in putting Sassuolo on the map of Italian football: Mister Eusebio di Francesco. The current Cagliari manager will look forward to getting one over his old side, even though the Sardinians have failed to score in each of their last three opening fixtures.
Milan – Bologna
Fresh from their successful European triumph midweek in Ireland, Milan look set to open their Serie A campaign with a sense of hope and rejuvenation that has escaped the Rossoneri in recent seasons. Young signings Sandro Tonali and Brahim Diaz, along with the restored faith in manager Stefano Pioli and the supervision of veteran striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, represent an exciting team to look out for this campaign.
Exciting isn’t precisely the term to describe Bologna’s activity in this summer’s transfer window. Aside from signing Torino’s right back Lorenzo De Silvestri, manager Sinisa Mihajlovic will be working with pretty much the same side as last year. Given the struggles at the back that the Rossoblu had shown last season – they have failed to keep a clean sheet in their previous 33 league outings – it is no wonder that the club’s only recruitment thus far is a defensive one.
