New Livorno coach Christian Panucci made a fine start to his career as a coach leading his team to a brilliant opening day win against potential Serie B challengers Pescara.
The Delfini were immediately put in a sticky situation when goalkeeper Vincenzo Fiorillo was sent-off for bringing down Francesco Fedato in the penalty box.
Daniele Vantaggiato made no mistake and confidently converted the resulting penalty.
The Amaranto continued to dominate and almost extended their lead when captain Andrea Luci hit the post with a shot from just outside the box.
However the pressure was too much for Massimo Oddo’s side and Vantaggiato claimed his second following a determined run and shot which stand-in goalkeeper Simone Aresti could not keep out.
Pescara were struggling at this point and four minutes before half-time Oddo was handed his first loss as a coach when Federico Ceccherini headed in at the near post from a corner.
The second-half was unremarkable to watch as the Delfini sat back, but Fedato did manage to add a bit more misery to Pescara fans faces, slotting past goalkeeper Aresti to make it 4-0.
In arguably the game of the day Bari produced an excellent attacking performance to beat Spezia 4-3. Giuseppe De Luca scored both of I Galleti’s opening goals and both were headers after some quite disastrous marking gave the Italian acres of room.
Towards the end of the first-half, Spezia pulled two goals back, the first through Miguel de las Cuevas and the second from Andrea Catellani penalty.
In the second-half it looked like the Aquilotti might have won after striker Nenê headed in from a corner. But it was not be as Bari turned it around. Riccardo Maniero eqaulised just six minutes after Nene’s goal, before finishing off a delightful counter-attack in the 79th minute to claim his second of the game.
Perugia made a strong start to season winning 2-0 against Serie B newcomers Como. The Grifoni opened the scoring through a long range pile driver from Lorenzo Del Prete.
In the second-half Perugia had a number of chances to extend the lead but were denied by on-loan Udinese goalkeeper Simone Scuffet. However, the win was eventually sealed through Matthew Ardemagni, who ran through on goal and brilliantly lofted his shot over Scuffet.
Ternana failed to give their fans any hope that this season would any different to last season’s mid-table finish, with a 3-0 loss to Trapani. After a slow start it was the Granata who took the lead through a Ernesto Torresgrossa header.
The score remained the same until Trapani made sure of the win with a three minute double-salvo. Torregrossa doubled his goal-tally from a volley of a corner, before Igor Coronado fired in after being played in behind the Ternana defence.
Salernitina won the Derby di Campania beating Avellino 3-1. The atmosphere was bouncing at the Stadio Arechi Salerno as the Serie B new boys dominated the early stages and took the lead in the 12th minute through Denilson Marítimo Gabionetta, who blasted in from just inside the penalty area.
Avellino did respond through Marcello Trotta who managed to scramble the ball in following a mistake from I Granata goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha. The Irpini continued to create chances, but it was Salernitina who took the lead again through Gabionetta, who turned the defender inside out and curled his shot in.
As both sides tired chances were limited, but Gennaro Troianello did add a third off the bench to send the Salernitina fans home happy.
Last season’s play-off failures Vicenza won 1-0 in Modena to begin their title challenge. Despite Modena having the majority of chances it was the Berici striker Stefano Giacomelli who scored the only goal of the game from a penalty.
After narrowly avoiding relegation last Pro Vercelli started their season in positive fashion beating potential play-off contenders Virtus Lanciano 2-1.
Massimiliano Gatto gave the Leoni the lead after a brilliant driving run ended in a fabulous shot which sailed into the net. Lanciano equalized through Nicola Ferrari, but it was the Bianche Casacche who claimed all the points following a Luca Castiglia header.
Riccardo Brosco scored a fantastic goal on the half-volley in the 94th minute, which gave Latina a share of the spoils against Serie B debutants Novara.
The Biancoazzurri had taken the lead through Andrej Galabinov, but were unable to see out the match following heavy pressure from the away side.
