The 2018–19 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 117th season of top-tier Italian football, the 87th in a round-robin tournament, and the 9th since its organization under a league committee separate from Serie B. Juventus were the seven-time defending champions and defended their title following their victory against Fiorentina on 20 April 2019. The season was run from 18 August 2018 to 26 May 2019.
Events Hellas Verona and Benevento immediately returned to Serie B after finishing 19th and 20th while Crotone, finishing in 18th place, were relegated after two seasons in the top flight.
On 28 April, Empoli earned the right to come back to Serie A after one year of relegation. On 18 May 2018, Parma achieved promotion having finished second in the 2017–18 Serie B season, just three seasons after their bankruptcy relegation to Serie D. The last team promoted, after 2 years of absence, was Frosinone, who defeated Palermo in the Serie B play-off finals 3–2 on aggregate.
On 23 July, Parma were handed a 5-point deduction for the 2018–19 Serie A season, following text messages from Parma player Emanuele Calaiò "eliciting a reduced effort" from two players of Spezia during the 2017–18 season, a match Parma won 2–0 to secure promotion to this season. On 9 August, Parma had the 5-point deduction expunged.
On 14 August, the day of the Ponte Morandi bridge collapse in Genoa, the Italian Football Federation announced a minute's silence would be added for the victims of the collapse before all Serie A matches during the opening weekend that succeeded the incident. On 16 August, the Lega Serie A postponed the opening matches for both Genoese clubs Genoa and Sampdoria that were originally scheduled for 19 August.
On 13 September, Chievo was deducted 3 points after being found guilty of false accounting.
On 14 April 2019, Chievo was relegated from Serie A after a 3–1 defeat by Napoli, ending an eleven-year spell in the top flight.
On 20 April, Juventus won their 35th title and their eighth in a row with a win over Fiorentina.
On 5 May, Frosinone was relegated from Serie A after a 2–2 draw away at Sassuolo, going down after just one season.
On 26 May, Atalanta finished third and secured a place in the Champions League group stage, both for the first time in their history. Meanwhile, Empoli which were one point above the relegation zone ahead of Genoa, were eventually relegated to Serie B after they were defeated by Internazionale, while Genoa drew with Fiorentina.
This was also the last season of iconic Roma captain Daniele De Rossi that left the team after 18 seasons, while veterans Sergio Pellissier (from Chievo), Andrea Barzagli (from Juventus) and Emiliano Moretti (from Torino) retired from professional football at the end of the season.
Teams Stadiums and locations
Team Home city Stadium Capacity 2017–18 season Atalanta Bergamo Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia 7th in Serie A Bologna Bologna Stadio Renato Dall'Ara 15th in Serie A Cagliari Cagliari Sardegna Arena 16th in Serie A Chievo Verona Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi 13th in Serie A Empoli Empoli Stadio Carlo Castellani Serie B champions Fiorentina Florence Stadio Artemio Franchi 8th in Serie A Frosinone Frosinone Stadio Benito Stirpe Serie B playoff winners Genoa Genoa Stadio Luigi Ferraris 12th in Serie A Sampdoria Genoa Stadio Luigi Ferraris 10th in Serie A Internazionale Milan San Siro 4th in Serie A Milan Milan San Siro 6th in Serie A Juventus Turin Juventus Stadium Serie A champions Torino Turin Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino 9th in Serie A Lazio Rome Stadio Olimpico 5th in Serie A Roma Rome Stadio Olimpico 3rd in Serie A Napoli Naples Stadio San Paolo 2nd in Serie A Parma Parma Stadio Ennio Tardini 2nd in Serie B Sassuolo Sassuolo Mapei Stadium – Città del Tricolore(Reggio Emilia) 11th in Serie A SPAL Ferrara Stadio Paolo Mazza 17th in Serie A Udinese Udine Stadio Friuli 14th in Serie A
Personnel and kits TeamHead coachCaptainKit manufacturerShirt sponsor(s)MainOtherAtalanta Gian Piero Gasperini Alejandro Gómez Joma Radici GroupBologna Siniša Mihajlović Blerim Džemaili Macron Liu·JoCagliari Rolando Maran Luca Ceppitelli Macron ISOLA Artigianato di SardegnaChievo Domenico Di Carlo Sergio Pellissier Givova Paluani/Nobis/Canali System/Vicentini Carni/Fimauto/Mulish/Pescheria VivianiEmpoli Aurelio Andreazzoli Manuel Pasqual Kappa Computer Gross Fiorentina Vincenzo Montella Germán Pezzella Le Coq Sportif Save The ChildrenFrosinone Marco Baroni Daniel Ciofani Zeus Sport Banca Popolare del FrusinateGenoa Cesare Prandelli Domenico Criscito Lotto GiocheriaInternazionale Luciano Spalletti Samir Handanović Nike PirelliJuventus Massimiliano Allegri Giorgio Chiellini Adidas JeepLazio Simone Inzaghi Senad Lulić Macron MarathonbetMilan Gennaro Gattuso Alessio Romagnoli Puma Fly EmiratesNoneNapoli Carlo Ancelotti Lorenzo Insigne Kappa LeteParma Roberto D'Aversa Bruno Alves Erreà CetilarRoma Claudio Ranieri Daniele De Rossi Nike Qatar AirwaysSampdoria Marco Giampaolo Fabio Quagliarella Joma Invent EnergySassuolo Roberto De Zerbi Francesco Magnanelli Kappa MapeiNoneSPAL Leonardo Semplici Mirco Antenucci Macron Tassi GroupTorino Walter Mazzarri Andrea Belotti Kappa Suzuki/Suzuki Jimny (T)Udinese Igor Tudor Valon Behrami Macron Dacia
Managerial changes
Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Position in table Replaced by Date of appointment Napoli Maurizio Sarri Mutual consent 23 May 2018 Pre-season Carlo Ancelotti 23 May 2018Bologna Roberto Donadoni 24 May 2018 Filippo Inzaghi 13 June 2018Cagliari Diego López 30 May 2018 Rolando Maran 7 June 2018Sassuolo Giuseppe Iachini 5 June 2018 Roberto De Zerbi 13 June 2018Udinese Igor Tudor 7 June 2018 Julio Velázquez 7 June 2018Chievo Lorenzo D'AnnaSacked 9 October 2018 20th Gian Piero Ventura 10 October 2018Genoa Davide Ballardini 9 October 2018 11th Ivan Jurić 9 October 2018Empoli Aurelio Andreazzoli 5 November 2018 18th Giuseppe Iachini 6 November 2018Chievo Gian Piero Ventura Resigned, consensual resolution 13 November 2018 20th Domenico Di Carlo 13 November 2018Udinese Julio VelázquezSacked 13 November 2018 17th Davide Nicola 13 November 2018Genoa Ivan Jurić 7 December 2018 14th Cesare Prandelli 7 December 2018 Frosinone Moreno Longo 19 December 2018 19th Marco Baroni 19 December 2018Bologna Filippo Inzaghi 28 January 2019 18th Siniša Mihajlović 28 January 2019 Roma Eusebio Di Francesco 7 March 2019 5th Claudio Ranieri 8 March 2019Empoli Giuseppe Iachini 13 March 2019 17th Aurelio Andreazzoli 13 March 2019Udinese Davide Nicola 20 March 2019 16th Igor Tudor 21 March 2019Fiorentina Stefano Pioli Resigned 9 April 2019 10th Vincenzo Montella 10 April 2019
League table
Results
Season statistics Top goalscorers +RankPlayerClubGoals1 Fabio QuagliarellaSampdoria262 Duván ZapataAtalanta233 Krzysztof PiątekGenoa/Milan1224 Cristiano RonaldoJuventus215 Arkadiusz MilikNapoli176 Francesco CaputoEmpoli16 Dries MertensNapoli Leonardo PavolettiCagliari Andrea PetagnaSPAL10 Andrea BelottiTorino15 Ciro ImmobileLazio 1 Piątek played for Genoa until matchday 20 and scored 13 goals.
Hat-tricks
PlayerClubAgainst ResultDate Josip IličićAtalantaChievo 5–1 (A) Dries MertensNapoliEmpoli 5–1 (H) Duván ZapataAtalantaUdinese 3–1 (A) Josip IličićAtalantaSassuolo 6–2 (A) Duván Zapata4AtalantaFrosinone 5–0 (A)
Note 4 Player scored four goals(H) – Home (A) – Away
Clean sheets RankPlayerClubCleansheets1 Samir HandanovićInternazionale172 Salvatore SiriguTorino153 Gianluigi DonnarummaMilan134 Andrea ConsigliSassuolo125 Emil AuderoSampdoria11 Wojciech SzczęsnyJuventus7 Luigi SepeParma10 Łukasz SkorupskiBologna Thomas StrakoshaLazio10 Alban LafontFiorentina9
Awards In 2019, Serie A introduced the Serie A Awards for the first time, using calculations from Opta Sports and Netco Sports to determine the best players of the season. Award Winner Club Most Valuable Player Cristiano Ronaldo Juventus Best Under-23 Nicolò Zaniolo Roma Best Goalkeeper Samir Handanović Internazionale Best Defender Kalidou Koulibaly Napoli Best Midfielder Sergej Milinković-Savić Lazio Best Striker Fabio Quagliarella Sampdoria Team of the Year Goalkeeper Samir Handanović (Internazionale) Defence João Cancelo (Juventus) Kalidou Koulibaly (Napoli) Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus) Aleksandar Kolarov (Roma) Midfield Nicolò Barella (Cagliari) Miralem Pjanić (Juventus) Josip Iličić (Atalanta) Attack Fabio Quagliarella (Sampdoria) Duván Zapata (Atalanta) Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus)
Attendances
References
External links
ESPN Italian Serie A