2018–19 Serie A


The 2018–19 Serie A 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 follwing their victory against Fiorentina on 20 April 2019. The season was run from 18 August 2018 to 26 May 2019.

Events

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, Andrea Barzagli and Emiliano Moretti retired from professional football at the end of the season.

Teams

Stadiums and locations

TeamHome cityStadiumCapacity2017–18 season
AtalantaBergamoStadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia7th in Serie A
BolognaBolognaStadio Renato Dall'Ara15th in Serie A
CagliariCagliariSardegna Arena16th in Serie A
ChievoVeronaStadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi13th in Serie A
EmpoliEmpoliStadio Carlo CastellaniSerie B champions
FiorentinaFlorenceStadio Artemio Franchi8th in Serie A
FrosinoneFrosinoneStadio Benito StirpeSerie B playoff winners
GenoaGenoaStadio Luigi Ferraris12th in Serie A
InternazionaleMilanSan Siro4th in Serie A
JuventusTurinJuventus StadiumSerie A champions
LazioRomeStadio Olimpico5th in Serie A
MilanMilanSan Siro6th in Serie A
NapoliNaplesStadio San Paolo2nd in Serie A
ParmaParmaStadio Ennio Tardini2nd in Serie B
RomaRomeStadio Olimpico3rd in Serie A
SampdoriaGenoaStadio Luigi Ferraris10th in Serie A
SassuoloSassuoloMapei Stadium – Città del Tricolore
11th in Serie A
SPALFerraraStadio Paolo Mazza17th in Serie A
TorinoTurinStadio Olimpico Grande Torino9th in Serie A
UdineseUdineStadio Friuli14th in Serie A

Personnel and kits

Managerial changes

TeamOutgoing managerManner of departureDate of vacancyPosition in tableReplaced byDate of appointment
Napoli Maurizio SarriMutual consent23 May 2018Pre-season Carlo Ancelotti23 May 2018
Bologna Roberto DonadoniMutual consent24 May 2018Pre-season Filippo Inzaghi13 June 2018
Cagliari Diego LópezMutual consent30 May 2018Pre-season Rolando Maran7 June 2018
Sassuolo Giuseppe IachiniMutual consent5 June 2018Pre-season Roberto De Zerbi13 June 2018
Udinese Igor TudorMutual consent7 June 2018Pre-season Julio Velázquez7 June 2018
Chievo Lorenzo D'AnnaSacked9 October 201820th Gian Piero Ventura10 October 2018
Genoa Davide BallardiniSacked9 October 201811th Ivan Jurić9 October 2018
Empoli Aurelio AndreazzoliSacked5 November 201818th Giuseppe Iachini6 November 2018
Chievo Gian Piero VenturaResigned, consensual resolution13 November 201820th Domenico Di Carlo13 November 2018
Udinese Julio VelázquezSacked13 November 201817th Davide Nicola13 November 2018
Genoa Ivan JurićSacked7 December 201814th Cesare Prandelli7 December 2018
Frosinone Moreno LongoSacked19 December 201819th Marco Baroni19 December 2018
Bologna Filippo InzaghiSacked28 January 201918th Siniša Mihajlović28 January 2019
Roma Eusebio Di FrancescoSacked7 March 20195th Claudio Ranieri8 March 2019
Empoli Giuseppe IachiniSacked13 March 201917th Aurelio Andreazzoli13 March 2019
Udinese Davide NicolaSacked20 March 201916th Igor Tudor21 March 2019
Fiorentina Stefano PioliResigned9 April 201910th Vincenzo Montella10 April 2019

League table

Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches. In order to preserve chronological evolvements, any postponed matches are not included to the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards.

Results

Season statistics

Top goalscorers

1 Piątek played for Genoa until matchday 20 and scored 13 goals.

Top assists

Hat-tricks

PlayerClubAgainstResultDate
Josip IličićAtalantaChievo21 10 2018
Dries MertensNapoliEmpoli2 11 2018
Duván ZapataAtalantaUdinese9 12 2018
Josip IličićAtalantaSassuolo29 12 2018
Duván Zapata4AtalantaFrosinone20 01 2019

;Note
4 Player scored four goals ; – Home – Away

Clean sheets

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.
AwardWinnerClub
Most Valuable Player Cristiano RonaldoJuventus
Best Young Player Nicolò ZanioloRoma
Best Goalkeeper Samir HandanovićInternazionale
Best Defender Kalidou KoulibalyNapoli
Best Midfielder Sergej Milinković-SavićLazio
Best Striker Fabio QuagliarellaSampdoria

Number of teams by region