Football is finally back in Italy, and all 20 Serie A clubs will look to kick off their campaign in style as the new season is just around the corner.
Defending champions Juventus will be gunning for their 10th straight Scudetto while teams such as Inter Milan, Atalanta, Lazio, AC Milan, and AS Roma will do everything they can to unseat them from the throne.
The wheeling and dealing continues to go on in the transfer market, and that’s one way to strengthen their teams for a grueling season ahead.
Meanwhile, football fans will get to welcome the new kids on the block in Benevento, Crotone, and Spezia after their solid performances in the Italian second division last term. However, their work will be cut out for them as they try to survive with the big boys this time around.
Will their roster quality be enough to hang with Italy’s elite? Or will they crash out of the top division by season’s end?
The Serie A 2020 odds do not back them to make it very far, but anything is possible in football.
Today, we talk about these newly-promoted sides here at SBOTOP.
Benevento
The Stregoni will look to avoid history repeating itself as they enter into the new season with renewed confidence.
The Pippo Inzaghi-coached squad blew the competition away in the second division en route to winning the championship. Benevento have clinched their promotion in as early as June 30 when they defeated Juve Stabia, 1-0.
With seven games to spare, Benevento never took their foot off the gas and they finished with an 18-point lead over fellow newcomers Crotone. They finished with 26 wins, eight draws, while losing only four times.
2020/21 will mark the club’s second-ever appearance in Serie A and they have come a long way after suffering from bankruptcy back in 2005.
It was unfortunate that the club had to endure numerous trials and hardships in more than a decade, but the arrival of the Vigorito siblings was the ultimate game-changer.
Benevento had to grind their way playing in the Serie C, and eventually, they’ve made their long-awaited promotion to the second division in 2016.
From there, the team continued their meteoric rise by moving up to Serie A a year later. However, after an uninspiring 2017/18 campaign to which they only had 21 points, Benevento were sent to drop.
Now that they’re back, Benevento are coming back with a vengeance.
So far in the transfer market, Pippo Inzaghi is packing the squad with the likes of Kamil Glik, Gianluca Lapadula, and Lorenzo Insigne’s younger brother in Roberto.
Crotone
Like Benevento, Crotone are coming into the 2020/21 season with a lot of ambition as this is their third trip back in the top-flight.
They made the step up back in 2016 and they made a miraculous comeback to fend off relegation in the final round. However, they were sent crashing back in 2018.
The Pitagorici finished second behind Serie B champions Benevento, but despite the point differential, they aren’t too shabby themselves.
Crotone also finished second in goals scored last season with 63, and they are being led by their Nigerian hitman in Simy Nwankwo, who topped the division with 20 goals.
Simy Nwankwo turned in one of his finest performances last season in their promotion-clinching victory over Livorno as he scored a brace in the 5-1 victory.
The ace striker will be the main man to look out for as he is more than capable of adding to this season’s Serie A 2020 highlights.
This term, he will be supported by new transferees in former Ajax defender Lisandro Magallan and Sporting CP midfielder Eduardo Henrique.
Spezia
Joining Benevento and Crotone will be Spezia as they will make their debut in Serie A after 100 years.
Normally, the teams who have moved up to the top division will almost always be relegated by the season’s end. This is quite the common trend and this highlights how big of a jump that a team like Spezia will make.
The Ligurian side experienced a turbulent start of the season, winning only once in their first seven games. However, they were able to bounce back big time as they were unbeaten in 13 straight matches right before the COVID-19 lockdown.
Spezia leaned heavily on their loaned players in Simone Scuffett, Antonio Ragusa, Luigi Vitale, Antonio Di Gaudio, Federico Ricci, and M’bala Nzola. But they have returned already to their respective mother clubs and this will pose a daunting challenge for the team.
Perhaps they could go down that route once more. But regardless, they will need to fill up their roster spots fast.
Spezia are hopeful that their new players in Jacopo Sala, Ardian Ismajli, Lorenzo Colombini, Kevin Agudelo, Jeroen Zoet, Cristian Dell’Orco, and Riccardo Marchizza can fill in the void.
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