Serie A Opening Day Preview: Napoli’s Title Defence, Gasperini’s New Dawn at Roma, Revolts at Milan and More… | OneFootball

Serie A returns from its summer hiatus this Saturday with four games that span the scale of narratives that have dominated the off-season: there are big names up against new arrivals as Champions Napoli kick off the campaign away at Serie B winners Sassuolo, while Cremonese make their return to their top tier at the grandest stage possible as they face AC Milan at San Siro.

Two other iconic Calcio venues will inaugurate the spectacle of 2025/26 on opening day as Patrick Vieira’s Genoa host Lecce at Marassi, before one of the weekend’s most intriguing clashes sees Coppa Italia winners Bologna travel to the Stadio Olimpico for Gian Piero Gasperini’s debut as Roma boss. Here’s a look at what we can expect across Saturday’s games:

Sassuolo v Napoli, 5:30pm BST, Mapei Stadium:

On an inaugural weekend that will be dominated by narratives of new coaches taking their first steps at various clubs across the league, the champions of Italy’s top two tiers will hope to capitalise on the continuity afforded by a familiar face in the dugout.

Despite rumours of friction between Antonio Conte and club president Aurelio de Laurentiis – two coarse characters at the best of times – amidst the tension and eventual joy of the title run-in last May, the pair were able to reach an agreement for the five-time Scudetto-winning ‘allenatore’ to continue his work in Naples for at least another year.

The Bari-born boss has had his loyalty repaid by the club’s own spending spree in the summer, as the Partenopei aim to learn from their mistakes of two years ago and adequately improve a table-topping side from a position of strength. Investments in centre back Sam Beukema (€30 million from Bologna) and winger Noa Lang (€25 million from PSV) have been the heaviest outlays of the window so far, although it was the arrival of Kevin De Bruyne on a free transfer which has unsurprisingly sparked the most enthusiasm in the Bay of Naples and beyond.

That said, the signing of Lorenzo Lucca, the six-foot six-inch centre forward from Udinese, may well prove to be the most important piece of business for the Neapolitans, certainly in the early stages of the season, following the news of Romelu Lukaku’s thigh injury, which will rule him out for a significant period.

The Belgian’s absence may well place greater responsibility on another blonde-haired, game-changing midfielder who has swapped the bland, watery tomatoes of rainy Manchester for the succulent sun-kissed San Marzano variety of the Campania region: Serie A MVP Scott McTominay popped up with an incredible collection of vital goals that propelled Napoli to only their second Scudetto since the days of Maradona.

The first test for ‘McFratm’ (as the Scot is affectionately known in Naples, i.e., ‘McBro’) and co. comes at the Mapei Stadium in Reggio Emilia, where Fabio Grosso’s Sassuolo will be hoping to reaffirm their Serie A status after their first year out of the division since 2013.

Although the neroverdi, a small provincial club from a village of the same name in the Emilian countryside, traditionally produce an attractive, expansive brand of football and have a vast collection of memorable scalps against Italy’s big boys, the Mapei is hardly the most intimidating of away grounds. In fact, it is expected that there will be between eight and ten thousand Napoli fans in attendance at the 21,000-capacity stadium, which will vastly outweigh the home support.

Genoa v Lecce, 5:30 pm BST, Stadio Luigi Ferraris:

Kicking off concurrently with the Champions are two teams who will have much more focus on the newly promoted sides’ fortunes than those of the heavyweights as both look to navigate yet another season in the direction of the coveted ‘salvezza’, literally ‘salvation’ or ‘survival’, along with approximately half of the division for whom that is the primary aim.

Genoa’s path to salvation proved to be much calmer and more convincing than that of the Giallorossi, who needed a dramatic last-day victory away at Lazio to stay up.

The Ligurians managed to secure a relatively worry-free 13th-place finish, despite a shaky start to the season that cost Alberto Gilardino his job (now at Pisa). Patrick Vieira’s appointment reinvigorated the Genoani; the former Crystal Palace and Strasbourg boss suffered just one defeat in his first eight matches and that was against the eventual champions. In fact, the only other defeats he suffered until late April came away at Inter, Juventus, Roma and Fiorentina.

Vieira’s second act in the port city will no doubt prove a much tougher task given the extent of outgoings from last season’s squad, most notably the recent departure of Koni De Winter to Milan. The loan signings of Valentin Carboni and Lorenzo Colombo add some youthful energy and talent to a team desperately hoping to avoid the fate of their rivals Sampdoria, who have been mired in Serie B for three years now (and were extremely fortunate to escape the on-pitch relegation they suffered to the third tier last season!).

Lecce, meanwhile, have wrestled with the relegation much more vigorously over the past two campaigns, surviving by three points on both occasions and each time changing coaches midway through the season. They have opted for that strategy from the start this year, parting ways with Marco Giampaolo in early June. A heroic final-day escape was not enough for the former Milan and Torino boss to keep hold of the reins in Salento, with the club hiring Eusebio di Francesco in his place.

Since guiding Roma to the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2018, the trajectory of the Pescara-born tactician’s career has taken a certain downturn. Sacked after eight games by Sampdoria in 2019 and after only four with Verona in 2021, he has completed the last two seasons in full with Frosinone and Venezia, respectively… each time ending in relegation to Serie B.

For the Salentini, it is hardly the most encouraging sign ahead of their fourth successive season in Serie A. For Di Francesco, a win at Marassi on Saturday could be exactly what he needs for his own ‘salvezza’, never mind his team’s. Lecce have only ever won once on the opening day across 19 seasons in Serie A and in none of those seasons have they ever beaten Genoa away from home.

Prediction: Genoa 2-0 Lecce

AC Milan v Cremonese, 7:45pm BST Stadio Guiseppe Meazza:

The return of Maximiliano Allegri to the San Siro dugout, the man who guided AC Milan to the 2011 Scudetto in his first season at the club, along with a collection of fresh faces amongst the playing staff, should herald an exciting new dawn for the Rossoneri, especially off the back of last season’s disastrous 8th-place finish. However, the mood at a sold-out Meazza on Saturday night will be eerily tame in the stands as the club continues to wage war against its most loyal supporters.

Tensions between the ultras and the hierarchy at Milan have been hostile for over 18 months now, with protests, strikes, angry chants and abandoned stands a regular theme of that period. This is also amidst an ongoing investigation by the prosecutor’s office in Milan into the activities of both of the city’s Ultras groups with regard to their supposedly undue influence on matchday issues such as ticketing, merchandise, food trucks, etc.

While these activities have been common knowledge to even the most casual outsider for decades and are far from the biggest concerns that football culture faces, both AC Milan and Inter’s compliance with the authorities to disguise their own longstanding acceptance of the status quo has strained relations with the respective curvas. The ultras have in the meantime been hit with sanctions on the use of banners, flags and choreographies – usually the most iconic aspect of any big game at San Siro.

The most egregious act from the increasingly despised ownership and off-pitch hierarchy at AC Milan, certainly in the eyes of the Ultras, came this week when circa 40 prominent members of the Curva Sud – the beating heart of Il Diavolo on matchday – were left infuriated and confused by an email they received from the club revoking their right to acquire a season ticket in the curva. Amongst the condemned were leading figures such as Marco Pacini – the ‘portavoce’ (or, in English, “man with megaphone”) – and Il Barone, the legendary 76-year-old in the bright orange jacket in an otherwise blacked-out curva who has been there since the inception of the ultras – not just at Milan but in Italy and Europe.

“The Sound of Silence” reads the banner as Milan’s ultras desert the Curva Sud last season

Many of the victims of the purge also had their family and children banned, despite not having been accused of anything themselves. The crimes of the condemned, as detailed by the club in the notice they sent to the perceived delinquents, were apparently no more than engaging in and organising protests against the ownership both before the Coppa Italia final and outside the club’s official headquarters later in May.

Paradoxically, however, those banned from acquiring a season ticket remain allowed to purchase individual tickets for each game in the curva, which sells out fast, or indeed, any other part of the stadium. This, naturally, has been met with both rage and bewilderment at the twisted logic of the club’s arbitrary purge. It also has offered vindication to the swathes of Milanisti who for the past two years have incessantly questioned the decision-making with regard to signings, managerial appointments (and disappointments), as well as, ultimately, the direction of the club and its ambition, or lack thereof.

Although this preview of Saturday’s season opener against Cremonese is light on team news and heavy on context, the background of this clash is much more significant than the fact Rafael Leao will miss the game through injury. Or, whether Luka Modric will make his Serie A debut from the start alongside other possible debutants such as Pervis Estupinian (signed from Brighton), Samuele Ricci (Torino), Ardon Jashari (Club Brugge), or the aforementioned Koni De Winter (Genoa).

Cremonese, meanwhile, have hired Davide Nicola, Serie A’s resident relegation escape artist, who, having guided Cagliari to safety last season, will aim to continue to do what he has done pretty much everywhere else and keep the Grigiorossi in the division. They have brought in a helping of top-tier experience to aid the process of readjusting to the big time, with Federico Baschirotto, Antonio Sanabria and Guiseppe Pezzella all well used to the league.

Notably, they have also been boosted on their (far) right flank by the loan signing of Romano Floriani Mussolini, the grandson of Benito, who joined from (unsurprisingly) Lazio.

AS Roma v Bologna, 7:45pm BST, Stadio Olimpico:

Gian Piero Gasperini, after a decade at Atalanta, has swapped the serene streets and sub-Alpine hills of Bergamo for the relentless energy and urban chaos of the nation’s capital. His first outing as Roma boss will be his 600th in Serie A and perhaps one of his most scrutinised since his ill-fated five-game stint in charge of Inter back in 2011. Inspired by the prospect of a new challenge, the Piemontese coach opted to take the reins in Rome from his longstanding friend and on-field rival Claudio Ranieri, whose astonishing work last year almost propelled the Giallorossi to a Champions League place.

Instead, Roma will be playing in the Europa League along with Saturday night’s opponents Bologna, who secured their spot as a result of their historic Coppa Italia success. Vincenzo Italiano’s men return to the scene of that memorable night in May, hoping to kickstart another famous campaign for the Rossoblu faithful, who have scarcely enjoyed successive seasons as much over the past half-century.

Although the Bolognesi have yet again been gutted of their star players – last year it was Riccardo Calafiori and Joshua Zirkzee, this year Dan Ndoye and Sam Beukema – what they may have lost in youthful exuberance they will hope to have gained in clinical experience. Ciro Immobile (34) and Federico Bernardeschi (31), both part of Italy’s Euro 2021 winning squad, have returned to the peninsula from the wilderness of Turkish and MLS football, respectively.

Gasperini, meanwhile, has been backed by some not insignificant levels of expenditure by modern Serie A standards. Wesley, a 21-year-old Brazilian right back, arrived from Flamengo for €25m and Moroccan midfielder Neil El Aynaoui from Lens for €23.5m. Roma’s attack has been bolstered by the introduction of both Evan Ferguson and Leon Bailey, who may command similar transfer fees in a year’s time, having come in on initial loan deals with options of future purchase. The pair may well get their first taste of Italian football from the start on Saturday night, especially considering Paulo Dybala will be absent through injury – something which the Giallorossi will be praying does not become a theme of yet another season for the Argentine.

Nevertheless, Roma vs Bologna at the Olimpico is one of, if not the, most enticing matchups of the first round, as two teams with plenty of momentum and lofty ambitions for the campaign ahead look to kick off in style at one of Italy’s most iconic venues. Calcio, finally, is back.