2019–20 Serie B

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Serie B 2019–20
Season information
Dates	23 August 2019 – 20 August 2020
Winners	Benevento
Promoted	Benevento Crotone
Relegated	Trapani Juve Stabia Livorno
Season statistics
Matches played	380
Goals scored	955
Top goalscorer	Simy (20 goals)
← 2018–19	2020–21 →

The 2019–20 Serie B (known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons) is the 88th season since its establishment in 1929. The 20-team format returned after 16 years, the last time being in the 2002–03 season. The season was scheduled to run from 23 August 2019 to 14 May 2020, though on 9 March 2020, the Italian government halted the league until 3 April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Serie B did not resume play on this date. On 18 May, it was announced that Italian football would be suspended until 14 June. On 28 May, it was announced that Serie B would resume starting from 20 June.

Team changes

After one season with 19 clubs, Serie B will be played under a 20-team format for the first time since the 2002–03 season.

Promoted from 2018–19 Serie C Virtus Entella (Group A champions) Pordenone (Group B champions) Juve Stabia (Group C champions) Pisa (playoff winners) Trapani (playoff winners) Relegated from 2018–19 Serie A Empoli Frosinone Chievo Verona

Among the five promoted teams, Pordenone will be the only one to have never played Serie B before. Among the relegated teams, two of them (Empoli and Frosinone) will return to Serie B after only one season in the top flight.

On 4 July 2019, the Co.Vi.Soc. recommended the exclusion of Palermo from the league due to financial irregularities. The club's exclusion was confirmed and ratified on 12 July, with Venezia being readmitted in place of the Rosanero.

Stadia and locations

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity	2018–19 season
Ascoli	Ascoli Piceno	Stadio Cino e Lillo Del Duca	&0000000000012461.00000012,461	13th in Serie B
Benevento	Benevento	Stadio Ciro Vigorito	&0000000000016867.00000016,867	3rd in Serie B
Chievo	Verona	Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi	&0000000000031045.00000031,045	20th in Serie A
Cittadella	Cittadella (Padua)	Stadio Pier Cesare Tombolato	&0000000000007623.0000007,623	7th in Serie B
Cosenza	Cosenza	Stadio San Vito-Gigi Marulla	&0000000000024209.00000024,209	10th in Serie B
Cremonese	Cremona	Stadio Giovanni Zini	&0000000000020641.00000020,641	9th in Serie B
Crotone	Crotone	Stadio Ezio Scida	&0000000000016640.00000016,640	12th in Serie B
Empoli	Empoli (Florence)	Stadio Carlo Castellani	&0000000000016284.00000016,284	18th in Serie A
Frosinone	Frosinone	Stadio Benito Stirpe	&0000000000016227.00000016,227	19th in Serie A
Juve Stabia	Castellammare di Stabia (Naples)	Romeo Menti	&0000000000013000.00000013,000	Serie C/C Champions
Livorno	Livorno	Stadio Armando Picchi	&0000000000014267.00000014,267	14th in Serie B
Perugia	Perugia	Stadio Renato Curi	&0000000000023625.00000023,625	8th in Serie B
Pescara	Pescara	Stadio Adriatico – Giovanni Cornacchia	&0000000000020515.00000020,515	4th in Serie B
Pisa	Pisa	Arena Garibaldi – Romeo Anconetani	&0000000000010000.00000010,000	3rd in Serie C/A, play-off winner
Pordenone	Pordenone	Dacia Arena (Udine)	&0000000000025132.00000025,132	Serie C/B Champions
Salernitana	Salerno	Stadio Arechi	&0000000000037180.00000037,180	16th in Serie B
Spezia	La Spezia	Stadio Alberto Picco	&0000000000010336.00000010,336	6th in Serie B
Trapani	Trapani	Polisportivo Provinciale (Erice)	&0000000000007787.0000007,787	2nd in Serie C/C, play-off winner
Venezia	Venice	Stadio Pierluigi Penzo	&0000000000007371.0000007,371	15th in Serie B
Virtus Entella	Chiavari (Genoa)	Comunale Aldo Gastaldi	&0000000000005535.0000005,535	Serie C/A Champions

Personnel and kits

Team	President	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Sponsors
Ascoli	Giuliano Tosti	Paolo Zanetti	Matteo Ardemagni	Nike	Fainplast, Moretti Design, Air Fire, Green Network Energy
Benevento	Oreste Vigorito	Filippo Inzaghi	Christian Maggio	Kappa	IVCP, Rillo Costruzioni
Chievo	Luca Campedelli	Michele Marcolini	Riccardo Meggiorini	Givova	Paluani, Coati, Avelia, Nobis
Cittadella	Andrea Gabrielli	Roberto Venturato	Manuel Iori	Mizuno	Sirmax, Gabrielli, Metalservice, Gavinox
Cosenza	Eugenio Guarascio	Piero Braglia	Angelo Corsi	Legea	4.0, Gruppo Chiappetta
Cremonese	Paolo Rossi	Marco Baroni	Claiton	Acerbis	Arinox, Acciaieria Arvedi, Argenta Active
Crotone	Gianni Vrenna	Giovanni Stroppa	Alex Cordaz	Zeus	San Vincenzo, Envì Group, Vumbaca Group Ford
Empoli	Fabrizio Corsi	Roberto Muzzi	Domenico Maietta	Kappa	Computer Gross, Sammontana, Giletti
Frosinone	Maurizio Stirpe	Alessandro Nesta	Mirko Gori	Zeus	Banca Popolare del Frusinate, Acea]
Juve Stabia	Francesco Manniello	Fabio Caserta	Alessandro Mastalli	Givova	Spada Roma, AutoShopping
Livorno	Aldo Spinelli	Roberto Breda	Andrea Luci	Legea	Gruppo Spinelli, Pediatrica
Perugia	Massimiliano Santopadre	Massimo Oddo	Aleandro Rosi	Frankie Garage	Piccini, Vitakraft, Fortinfissi
Pescara	Daniele Sebastiani	Luciano Zauri	Vincenzo Fiorillo	Erreà	SarniOro, Lublan, Liofilchem
Pisa	Giuseppe Corrado	Luca D'Angelo	Davide Moscardelli	Adidas	HTS, Vitali
Pordenone	Mauro Lovisa	Attilio Tesser	Mirko Stefani	Joma	Omega Group, Assiteca, Alea
Salernitana	Marco Mezzaroma Claudio Lotito	Gian Piero Ventura	Francesco Di Tacchio	Zeus
Spezia	Andrea Corradino	Vincenzo Italiano	Claudio Terzi	Acerbis	CA Carispezia
Trapani	Giorgio Heller	Francesco Baldini	Luca Pagliarulo	Joma	Liberty Lines, Tonno Auriga
Venezia	Joe Tacopina	Alessio Dionisi	Marco Modolo	Nike
Virtus Entella	Antonio Gozzi	Roberto Boscaglia	Luca Nizzetto	Adidas	Duferco Energia, Kia Gecar

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Perugia	Alessandro Nesta	Signed for Frosinone	21 May 2019	Pre-season	Massimo Oddo	7 June 2019
Pescara	Giuseppe Pillon	Resigned	26 May 2019		Luciano Zauri	5 June 2019
Spezia	Pasquale Marino	Mutual consent	30 May 2019		Vincenzo Italiano	19 June 2019
Chievo	Domenico Di Carlo	Signed for Vicenza	1 June 2019		Michele Marcolini	4 July 2019
Frosinone	Marco Baroni	Mutual consent	2 June 2019		Alessandro Nesta	17 June 2019
Ascoli	Vincenzo Vivarini	Sacked	5 June 2019		Paolo Zanetti	7 June 2019
Empoli	Aurelio Andreazzoli	Signed for Genoa	13 June 2019		Cristian Bucchi	18 June 2019
Benevento	Cristian Bucchi	Signed for Empoli	18 June 2019		Filippo Inzaghi	22 June 2019
Trapani	Vincenzo Italiano	Signed for Spezia	19 June 2019		Francesco Baldini	11 July 2019
Salernitana	Leonardo Menichini	Sacked	30 June 2019		Gian Piero Ventura	30 June 2019
Venezia	Serse Cosmi	End of contract	30 June 2019		Alessio Dionisi	3 July 2019
Cremonese	Massimo Rastelli	Sacked	8 October 2019	12th	Marco Baroni	8 October 2019
Empoli	Cristian Bucchi	Sacked	12 November 2019	10th	Roberto Muzzi	14 November 2019
Livorno	Roberto Breda	Sacked	9 December 2019	20th	Paolo Tramezzani	10 December 2019
Trapani	Francesco Baldini	Sacked	17 December 2019	19th	Fabrizio Castori	19 December 2019
Perugia	Massimo Oddo	Sacked	4 January 2020	13th	Serse Cosmi	4 January 2020
Cremonese	Marco Baroni	Sacked	8 January 2020	17th	Massimo Rastelli	8 January 2020
Pescara	Luciano Zauri	Resigned	20 January 2020	10th	Nicola Legrottaglie	21 January 2020
Empoli	Roberto Muzzi	Sacked	26 January 2020	16th	Pasquale Marino	26 January 2020
Ascoli	Paolo Zanetti	Sacked	27 January 2020	12th	Guillermo Abascal (caretaker)	27 January 2020
	Guillermo Abascal	End of caretaker spell	1 February 2020	13th	Roberto Stellone	1 February 2020
Livorno	Paolo Tramezzani	Sacked	3 February 2020	20th	Roberto Breda	3 February 2020
Cosenza	Piero Braglia	Sacked	10 February 2020	18th	Giuseppe Pillon	11 February 2020
Chievo	Michele Marcolini	Sacked	1 March 2020	7th	Alfredo Aglietti	11 February 2020
Cremonese	Massimo Rastelli	Sacked	4 March 2020	17th	Pierpaolo Bisoli	5 March 2020
Livorno	Roberto Breda	Sacked	8 March 2020	20th	Antonio Filippini	8 March 2020
Cosenza	Giuseppe Pillon	Mutual consent	18 March 2020	18th	Roberto Occhiuzzi (caretaker)	18 March 2020
Ascoli	Roberto Stellone	Sacked	16 April 2020	15th	Guillermo Abascal	16 April 2020
	Guillermo Abascal	Sacked	22 June 2020	17th	Davide Dionigi	24 June 2020
Pescara	Nicola Legrottaglie	Sacked	5 July 2020	14th	Andrea Sottil	7 July 2020

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Ascoli  (C) (P)	38	26	8	4	67	27	+40	86	Promotion to Serie A
2	Benevento  (P)	38	20	8	10	63	40	+23	68
3	Chievo  (P) (O)	38	17	10	11	54	40	+14	61	Qualification to promotion play-offs
4	Cittadella	38	16	10	12	48	46	+2	58
5	Cosenza	38	17	7	14	49	49	0	58
6	Cremonese	38	14	14	10	48	38	+10	56
7	Crotone	38	14	12	12	47	48	−1	54
8	Empoli	38	14	12	12	41	38	+3	54
9	Frosinone	38	14	12	12	49	45	+4	54
10	Juve Stabia	38	14	10	14	53	50	+3	52
11	Livorno	38	12	14	12	37	40	−3	50
12	Cremonese	38	12	13	13	42	43	−1	49
13	Virtus Entella	38	12	12	14	46	50	−4	48
14	Ascoli	38	13	7	18	50	58	−8	46
15	Cosenza	38	12	10	16	50	49	+1	46
16	Perugia  (R)	38	12	9	17	38	49	−11	45	Qualification to relegation play-out
17	Pescara  (O)	38	12	9	17	48	55	−7	45
18	Trapani  (R)	38	11	13	14	48	60	−12	44	Relegation to Serie C
19	Juve Stabia  (R)	38	11	8	19	47	63	−16	41
20	Livorno  (R)	38	5	6	27	30	67	−37	21

Source: Lega Serie B
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

Promotion play-offs

Six teams may contest the promotion playoffs depending on the point differential between the third and fourth-placed teams. It begins with a preliminary one-legged round played at the home venue of the higher placed team, involving the teams placed fifth to eight. The two winning teams advance to play the third and fourth-placed teams in the two-legged semifinals. Those winning teams advance to the two-legged final where the winner is promoted to play in Serie A the following year. In the two-legged rounds, the higher seeded team plays the second game at home.

	Preliminary round					Semifinals							Two-legged final
						5/8	Frosinone
	5	Cittadella	2			4	Pordenone
	8	Frosinone (aet)	3
						6	Chievo
	6	Chievo	1			3	Spezia
	7	Empoli	1

Preliminary round

4 August 2020	Chievo	1–1	Empoli	Verona
21:00 CEST (UTC+2)	Garritano  97'	Report	Tutino  110'	Stadium: Marcantonio Bentegodi Attendance: 0 Referee: Davide Ghersini

5 August 2020	Cittadella	2–3	Frosinone	Cittadella
21:00 CEST (UTC+2)	Diaw  5' (pen.), 45+1'	Report	Salvi  45+4' Dionisi  51' Ciano  120+1'	Stadium: Pier Cesare Tombolato Attendance: 0 Referee: Simone Sozza

Semi-finals

First leg

8 August 2020	Chievo	v	Spezia	Verona
21:00 CEST (UTC+2)				Stadium: Marcantonio Bentegodi Attendance: 0

9 August 2020	Frosinone	v	Pordenone	Cittadella/Frosinone
21:00 CEST (UTC+2)				Stadium: Pier Cesare Tombolato/Benito Stirpe Attendance: 0

Second leg

11 August 2020	Spezia	v	Chievo	La Spezia
21:00 CEST (UTC+2)				Stadium: Alberto Picco Attendance: 0

12 August 2020	Pordenone	v	Cittadella/Frosinone	Trieste
21:00 CEST (UTC+2)				Stadium: Nereo Rocco Attendance: 0

Finals

First leg

16 August 2020	SF2 Winner	v	SF1 Winner	TBD
21:00 CEST (UTC+2)				Stadium: TBD Attendance: 0

Second leg

20 August 2020	SF1 Winner	v	SF2 Winner	TBD
21:00 CEST (UTC+2)				Stadium: TBD Attendance: 0

Relegation play-out

Higher-placed team plays at home for second leg. If tied on aggregate, extra time and eventually penalty shoot-out are played because both teams ended up with same points in table. Losers are relegated.

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Pescara	–	Perugia	–	–

First leg

10 August 2020	Pescara	v	Perugia	Pescara
21:00 CEST (UTC+2)				Stadium: Adriatico – Giovanni Cornacchia Attendance: 0

Second leg

14 August 2020	Perugia	v	Pescara	Perugia
21:00 CEST (UTC+2)				Stadium: Renato Curi Attendance: 0

Season statistics

Top goalscorers As of 29 December 2019. Rank Player Club Goals 1 Pietro Iemmello Perugia 15 2 Cristian Galano Pescara 10 Michele Marconi Pisa 4 Davide Diaw Cittadella 9 Simy Crotone 6 Francesco Forte Juve Stabia 8 7 Sofian Kiyine Salernitana 7 Pepín Machín Pescara Stefano Pettinari Trapani Emmanuel Rivière Cosenza Luca Strizzolo Pordenone

Top assists As of 29 December 2019. Rank Player Club Assists 1 Ledian Memushaj Pescara 6 2 Jaime Báez Cosenza 5 Jure Balkovec Empoli Andrea Barberis Crotone Giacomo Calò Juve Stabia Oliver Kragl Benevento Nikola Ninković Ascoli 8 Salvatore Burrai Pordenone 4 Alessio Da Cruz Ascoli Marcello Falzerano Perugia Francesco Lisi Pisa Gaetano Masucci Giulio Maggiore Spezia Riccardo Meggiorini Chievo

Hat-tricks As of 29 December 2019. Player Club Against Result Date Camillo Ciano Frosinone Trapani 3–0 (H) 02019-10-30-30 October 2019 Nicolas Viola Benevento Trapani 5–0 (H) 02019-12-06-6 December 2019 Marco Sau Benevento Ascoli 4–0 (H) 02019-12-29-29 December 2019 Note (H) – Home (A) – Away

Clean sheets As of 29 December 2019. Rank Player Club Clean sheets Weeks 1 Lorenzo Montipò Benevento 12 1, 3, 7-8, 10-11, 13-17, 19 2 Francesco Bardi Frosinone 8 8, 10-12, 14-16, 19 Nikita Contini Baranovsky Virtus Entella 1-3, 10, 14-16, 18 4 Alberto Paleari Cittadella 7 3, 6-7, 9-12 5 Michele Di Gregorio Pordenone 6 2, 7, 9, 13, 15, 19 Luca Lezzerini Venezia 2, 5, 8, 12, 16, 19 Simone Scuffet Spezia 9, 11, 13, 15-16, 18 8 Alex Cordaz Crotone 5 1, 3, 5-6, 19 9 Stefano Gori Pisa 4 1-2, 14, 19 Adrian Šemper Chievo 3, 8, 11, 15 Guglielmo Vicario Perugia 2-3, 7, 17

External links

• Official website