Serie A 2021-2022, we start with stadiums that are no longer empty – with green pass – and games streamed on Dazn. The championship starts today, 21 August 2021, with the first 4 advances opening the tournament. At 18.30 kick-off with the Italian champion Inter who made their debut – with the Scudetto on their shirt – hosting Genoa in the Meazza stadium. At the same time, Verona and Sassuolo on the pitch. At 20.45, however, it’s up to Empoli-Lazio and Turin-Atalanta. The 2021-2022 Serie A starts just over a month after the triumph of the national team at Euro 2020.
After the last 18 months with the stadiums practically empty, the spectators return – at least in part – to the stands: entry with the green pass, distance and rules, with capacity reduced to 50%, but at least you don’t play in empty theaters. The other novelty, which mainly concerns sofa fans, is represented by Dazn’s en plein: the platform will stream the entire Serie A, with 10 matches per matchday. Seven matches for each round of the championship will be broadcast by Dazn exclusively, while another 3 will be co-exclusive with Sky (in the first round Empoli-Lazio, Bologna-Salernitana and Sampdoria-Milan).
Today, the spotlight is on Inter in particular. The Italian champions, struggling with a complicated corporate phase, present themselves with a decidedly different dress compared to the tricolor one worn in May. Antonio Conte is no longer there, replaced on the bench by Simone Inzaghi. In attack there is no longer Romelu Lukaku, who has succumbed to the flattery of Chelsea, replaced by Edin Dzeko. Achraf Hakimi, the protagonist of last year, who moved to PSG, is also gone. Today, against Genoa, the first test for the Nerazzurri, who – with the market still open – are difficult to judge. The feeling is that Inter’s pole position is strongly under discussion, in a championship so far characterized by few signings, very few deals and a forced attention to the accounts, severely tested by a structural crisis to which the very heavy covid ballast has been added.
In the evening, Giampiero Gasperini’s Atalanta pyrotechnic lights up, who in Turin is called upon to immediately give substance to his ambitions: the Bergamo players, now a regular presence in the Champions League, aspire to another top year. At 8.45 pm we will also discover Maurizio Sarri’s Lazio. The Tuscan coach, stopped for a year after the 2020 Scudetto with Juve, restarts from ‘his’ Empoli.
To see the other big names, you have to wait for Sunday. Juve 2.0 of Massimiliano Allegri, who returned to Turin after a 2-year break, starts from Udine. Luciano Spalletti’s Napoli welcomes Venezia back to the top division. José Mourinho’s Roma are involved with Fiorentina in the first ‘almost big match’ of the tournament. On Monday, in the first of many extended weekends, the curtain comes with Cagliari-Spezia and Sampdoria-Milan.