2015–16 Serie A

The 2015–16 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 114th season of top-tier Italian football, the 84th in a round-robin tournament, and the 6th since its organization under a league committee separate from Serie B. Juventus were the defending champions. The campaign began on 22 August 2015 and ended on 15 May 2016.

Serie A

Season	2015–16
Dates	22 August 2015 – 15 May 2016
Champions	Juventus 32nd title
Relegated	Carpi Frosinone Hellas Verona
Champions League	Juventus Napoli Roma
Europa League	Internazionale Fiorentina Sassuolo
Matches played	380
Goals scored	979 (2.58 per match)
Top goalscorer	Gonzalo Higuaín (36 goals)[1]
Best goalkeeper	Gianluigi Buffon (21 clean sheets)
Biggest home win	Napoli 6–0 Bologna (19 April 2016)[2]
Biggest away win	Goal difference of 4 6 games[2]
Highest scoring	Sampdoria 5–2 Carpi (23 August 2015)[2] Lazio 5–2 Hellas Verona (11 February 2016)[2]
Longest winning run	15 games[2] Juventus
Longest unbeaten run	26 games[2] Juventus
Longest winless run	22 games[2] Hellas Verona
Longest losing run	5 games[2] Genoa
Highest attendance	79,154 Internazionale 1–0 Milan (13 September 2015)[2] Internazionale 0–0 Juventus (18 October 2015)[3]
Lowest attendance	0 (behind closed doors) Palermo 2–2 Atalanta (20 April 2016)[2][4][5]
Average attendance	22,199[2]
← 2014–15 2016–17 →

On 25 April 2016, Juventus succeeded in defending their title for the fifth consecutive season, after second placed Napoli lost to Roma, giving Juventus a 12-point lead with only three games left.^[6]

Events

On 28 April 2015 Carpi obtained its first promotion ever to Serie A, after debuting in Serie B the year before, becoming the 64th team to participate in Serie A since the 1929–30 season.^[7] On 16 May, Frosinone also earned its first promotion to Serie A, becoming the 65th to participate.^[8] On 9 June 2015 Bologna won Serie B play-off, returning to the Serie A after just one year.

This season of Serie A was the first season to have goal-line technology implemented after severe complaints from various teams' general managers (first Adriano Galliani) in relation to controversial ghost goals during recent seasons of Serie A.^[9]

On 20 March 2016, Gianluigi Buffon broke the previous record of Sebastiano Rossi (929 minutes) by setting a longer period of 974 minutes without conceding a goal.^[10]

On 14 May, Gonzalo Higuaín broke Gunnar Nordahl's record for most goals scored in Serie A (20 teams championship) in a season (35 in 1949–50) and equaled Gino Rossetti's record in 1928–29 (that was composed of 32 teams, instead) by scoring 36 goals and winning the Capocannoniere.^{[11][12] [13]}

Three Serie A icons also retired at the end of the season; the Verona captain Luca Toni, who scored 157 goals in 324 league appearances and was twice the league's top scorer, as well as Gianpaolo Bellini, the left-back who spent his entire career with Atalanta, making 435 appearances with the club. Both players also scored in their final games with their clubs on 8 May 2016, Toni in a 2–1 win over champions Juventus and Bellini in a 1–1 draw with Udinese;^[14] and on 14 May, Christian Abbiati for Milan in the last fixture of the season at home against Roma, however, he did not get any playing time,^[15] totaling 281 league appearances for the club.^[16][17]

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Atalanta

Bologna

Carpi

Verona
Chievo

Empoli

Fiorentina

Frosinone

Internazionale
Milan

Juventus

Lazio
Roma

Napoli

Palermo

Genoa
Sampdoria

Sassuolo

Torino

Udinese

Locations of the 2015–16 Serie A teams

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity	2014–15 season
Atalanta	Bergamo	Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia	26,542	17th in Serie A
Bologna	Bologna	Stadio Renato Dall'Ara	38,279	Serie B playoffs winner
Carpi	Carpi	Stadio Alberto Braglia (Modena)	21,151	Serie B Champions
Chievo	Verona	Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi	38,402	14th in Serie A
Empoli	Empoli	Stadio Carlo Castellani	16,800	15th in Serie A
Fiorentina	Florence	Stadio Artemio Franchi	47,282	4th in Serie A
Frosinone	Frosinone	Stadio Matusa	10,000	2nd in Serie B
Genoa	Genoa	Stadio Luigi Ferraris	36,685	6th in Serie A
Hellas Verona	Verona	Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi	38,402	13th in Serie A
Internazionale	Milan	San Siro	80,018	8th in Serie A
Juventus	Turin	Juventus Stadium	41,475	Serie A Champions
Lazio	Rome	Stadio Olimpico	72,698	3rd in Serie A
Milan	Milan	San Siro	80,018	10th in Serie A
Napoli	Naples	Stadio San Paolo	60,240	5th in Serie A
Palermo	Palermo	Stadio Renzo Barbera	36,349	11th in Serie A
Roma	Rome	Stadio Olimpico	72,698	2nd in Serie A
Sampdoria	Genoa	Stadio Luigi Ferraris	36,685	7th in Serie A
Sassuolo	Sassuolo	Mapei Stadium – Città del Tricolore (Reggio Emilia)	23,717	12th in Serie A
Torino	Turin	Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino	27,994	9th in Serie A
Udinese	Udine	Dacia Arena	25,144	16th in Serie A

Personnel and kits

Team	Head Coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor(s)
				Main	Other
Atalanta	Edoardo Reja	Gianpaolo Bellini	Nike	SuisseGas	Front Stone City Back Elettrocanali
Bologna	Roberto Donadoni	Archimede Morleo	Macron	FAAC	Back Illumia
Carpi	Fabrizio Castori	Filippo Porcari	Givova	Azimut Holding	Back Gaudì Jeans
Chievo	Rolando Maran	Sergio Pellissier	Givova	Paluani/Payexe/Nobis Assicurazioni/Italgreen/Cubi e Perina/Pescherie Viviani/Buccia di Mela/IM.COS/Midac Batteries/Salumi Negri/Alufer/I. Bis Trading/Ecoprogram/CF Costruzioni/Salumi Coati/Centro Atlante Verona/Contri Spumanti/SimetBus	Front Payexe/Paluani Back Nobis Assicurazioni/Paluani/Authoitalia/Filo diretto Assicurazioni
Empoli	Marco Giampaolo	Massimo Maccarone	Joma	Gensan	Front Computer Gross Back NGM Mobile
Fiorentina	Paulo Sousa	Gonzalo Rodríguez	Le Coq Sportif	Save the Children	Back Save the Children (in UEFA matches)
Frosinone	Roberto Stellone	Alessandro Frara	Legea	Banca Popolare del Frusinate	Front Gruppo GALA Back 7Sette Carburanti
Genoa	Gian Piero Gasperini	Nicolás Burdisso	Lotto	AT.P.CO	Back LeasePlan
Hellas Verona	Luigi Delneri	Luca Toni	Nike	Metano Nord	Front Leaderform/SEC Events Back Manila Grace/Jetcoin
Internazionale	Roberto Mancini	Mauro Icardi	Nike	Pirelli (H)/Driver (A)	None
Juventus	Massimiliano Allegri	Gianluigi Buffon	Adidas	Jeep	None
Lazio	Simone Inzaghi	Lucas Biglia	Macron	Clinica Paideia	None
Milan	Cristian Brocchi	Riccardo Montolivo	Adidas	Fly Emirates	None
Napoli	Maurizio Sarri	Marek Hamšík	Kappa	Lete	Front Pasta Garofalo
Palermo	Davide Ballardini	Stefano Sorrentino	Joma	None	None
Roma	Luciano Spalletti	Francesco Totti	Nike	Football Cares/Telethon	None
Sampdoria	Vincenzo Montella	Angelo Palombo	Joma	Parà Tempotest/Samsung Galaxy/Samsung Galaxy S7/UNICEF	Back SsangYong Tivoli/SsangYong XLV
Sassuolo	Eusebio Di Francesco	Francesco Magnanelli	Kappa	Mapei	None
Torino	Giampiero Ventura	Kamil Glik	Kappa	Suzuki Vitara	Front Fratelli Beretta Back Tecnoalarm
Udinese	Luigi De Canio	Antonio Di Natale	HS Football	Dacia	Back Udinese TV (H)

• Additionally, referee kits are now being made by Diadora, and Nike has a new match ball, the Ordem Serie A.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Napoli	Rafael Benítez	Signed by Real Madrid	25 May 2015	Pre-season	Maurizio Sarri	12 June 2015[18]
Udinese	Andrea Stramaccioni	Resigned	1 June 2015[19]		Stefano Colantuono	4 June 2015 [20]
Sampdoria	Siniša Mihajlović	Signed by Milan	1 June 2015		Walter Zenga	4 June 2015 [21]
Milan	Filippo Inzaghi	Sacked	4 June 2015		Siniša Mihajlović	16 June 2015[22]
Empoli	Maurizio Sarri	Signed by Napoli	5 June 2015		Marco Giampaolo	9 June 2015[23]
Fiorentina	Vincenzo Montella	Sacked	8 June 2015 [24]		Paulo Sousa	21 June 2015[25]
Carpi	Fabrizio Castori		28 September 2015[26]	20th	Giuseppe Sannino	29 September 2015[27]
Bologna	Delio Rossi		28 October 2015	18th	Roberto Donadoni	28 October 2015[28]
Carpi	Giuseppe Sannino		3 November 2015[29]	20th	Fabrizio Castori	3 November 2015[30]
Palermo	Giuseppe Iachini		10 November 2015[31]	12th	Davide Ballardini	10 November 2015[31]
Sampdoria	Walter Zenga		10 November 2015[32]	10th	Vincenzo Montella	15 November 2015[33]
Hellas Verona	Andrea Mandorlini		30 November 2015[34]	20th	Luigi Delneri	1 December 2015[35]
Palermo	Davide Ballardini		11 January 2016[36]	16th	Fabio Viviani (caretaker)	11 January 2016[36]
Roma	Rudi Garcia		13 January 2016[37]	5th	Luciano Spalletti	13 January 2016[37]
Palermo	Fabio Viviani (caretaker)[36]	End of caretaker spell	18 January 2016[36]	14th	Giovanni Tedesco	26 January 2016[38]
Palermo	Giovanni Tedesco	End of interim spell	10 February 2016[36]	14th	Giovanni Bosi	10 February 2016[39]
Palermo	Giovanni Bosi	Sacked	15 February 2016[40]	15th	Giuseppe Iachini	15 February 2016
Palermo	Giuseppe Iachini		10 March 2016	17th	Walter Novellino	10 March 2016[41]
Udinese	Stefano Colantuono		14 March 2016	16th	Luigi De Canio	15 March 2016[42]
Lazio	Stefano Pioli		3 April 2016	8th	Simone Inzaghi (caretaker)	3 April 2016[43]
Palermo	Walter Novellino		11 April 2016[44]	18th	Davide Ballardini	12 April 2016[45]
Milan	Siniša Mihajlović		12 April 2016	6th	Cristian Brocchi	12 April 2016[46]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Juventus (C)	38	29	4	5	75	20	+55	91	Qualification to Champions League group stage
2	Napoli	38	25	7	6	80	32	+48	82
3	Roma	38	23	11	4	83	41	+42	80	Qualification to Champions League play-off round
4	Internazionale	38	20	7	11	50	38	+12	67	Qualification to Europa League group stage[a]
5	Fiorentina	38	18	10	10	60	42	+18	64
6	Sassuolo	38	16	13	9	49	40	+9	61	Qualification to Europa League third qualifying round
7	Milan	38	15	12	11	49	43	+6	57
8	Lazio	38	15	9	14	52	52	0	54
9	Chievo	38	13	11	14	43	45	−2	50
10	Empoli	38	12	10	16	40	49	−9	46[b]
11	Genoa	38	13	7	18	45	48	−3	46[b]
12	Torino	38	12	9	17	52	55	−3	45[c]
13	Atalanta	38	11	12	15	41	47	−6	45[c]
14	Bologna	38	11	9	18	33	45	−12	42
15	Sampdoria	38	10	10	18	48	61	−13	40
16	Palermo	38	10	9	19	38	65	−27	39[d]
17	Udinese	38	10	9	19	35	60	−25	39[d]
18	Carpi (R)	38	9	11	18	37	57	−20	38	Relegation to Serie B
19	Frosinone (R)	38	8	7	23	35	76	−41	31
20	Hellas Verona (R)	38	5	13	20	34	63	−29	28

Source: Serie A, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Goal difference; 5) Goals scored; 6) Draw.^[47]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Since the winners of the 2015–16 Coppa Italia, Juventus, qualified for European competition based on league position, the spot awarded to the cup winners (Europa League group stage) was passed to fifth-placed team and the spot awarded to the fifth-placed team (Europa League third qualifying round) was passed to the sixth-placed team.
2. Empoli ahead of Genoa on head-to-head goal difference; Empoli +1, Genoa –1.
3. Torino ahead of Atalanta on head-to-head points; Torino 6 points, Atalanta 0 points.
4. Palermo ahead of Udinese on head-to-head points; Palermo 6 points, Udinese 0 points.

Results

Home \ Away	ATA	BOL	CRP	CHV	EMP	FIO	FRO	GEN	HEL	INT	JUV	LAZ	MIL	NAP	PAL	ROM	SAM	SAS	TOR	UDI
Atalanta		2–0	3–0	1–0	0–0	2–3	2–0	0–2	1–1	1–1	0–2	2–1	2–1	1–3	3–0	3–3	2–1	1–1	0–1	1–1
Bologna	3–0		0–0	0–1	2–3	1–1	1–0	2–0	0–1	0–1	0–0	2–2	0–1	3–2	0–1	2–2	3–2	0–1	0–1	1–2
Carpi	1–1	1–2		1–2	1–0	0–1	2–1	4–1	0–0	1–2	2–3	1–3	0–0	0–0	1–1	1–3	2–1	1–3	2–1	2–1
Chievo	1–0	0–0	1–0		1–1	0–0	5–1	1–0	1–1	0–1	0–4	4–0	0–0	0–1	3–1	3–3	1–1	1–1	1–0	2–3
Empoli	0–1	0–0	3–0	1–3		2–0	1–2	2–0	1–0	0–1	1–3	1–0	2–2	2–2	0–0	1–3	1–1	1–0	2–1	1–1
Fiorentina	3–0	2–0	2–1	2–0	2–2		4–1	1–0	1–1	2–1	1–2	1–3	2–0	1–1	0–0	1–2	1–1	3–1	2–0	3–0
Frosinone	0–0	1–0	2–1	0–2	2–0	0–0		2–2	3–2	0–1	0–2	0–0	2–4	1–5	0–2	0–2	2–0	0–1	1–2	2–0
Genoa	1–2	0–1	1–2	3–2	1–0	0–0	4–0		2–0	1–0	0–2	0–0	1–0	0–0	4–0	2–3	2–3	2–1	3–2	2–1
Hellas Verona	2–1	0–2	1–2	3–1	0–1	0–2	1–2	1–1		3–3	2–1	1–2	2–1	0–2	0–1	1–1	0–3	1–1	2–2	1–1
Internazionale	1–0	2–1	1–1	1–0	2–1	1–4	4–0	1–0	1–0		0–0	1–2	1–0	2–0	3–1	1–0	3–1	0–1	1–2	3–1
Juventus	2–0	3–1	2–0	1–1	1–0	3–1	1–1	1–0	3–0	2–0		3–0	1–0	1–0	4–0	1–0	5–0	1–0	2–1	0–1
Lazio	2–0	2–1	0–0	4–1	2–0	2–4	2–0	2–0	5–2	2–0	0–2		1–3	0–2	1–1	1–4	1–1	0–2	3–0	2–0
Milan	0–0	0–1	0–0	1–0	2–1	2–0	3–3	2–1	1–1	3–0	1–2	1–1		0–4	3–2	1–3	4–1	2–1	1–0	1–1
Napoli	2–1	6–0	1–0	3–1	5–1	2–1	4–0	3–1	3–0	2–1	2–1	5–0	1–1		2–0	0–0	2–2	3–1	2–1	1–0
Palermo	2–2	0–0	2–2	1–0	0–1	1–3	4–1	1–0	3–2	1–1	0–3	0–3	0–2	0–1		2–4	2–0	0–1	1–3	4–1
Roma	0–2	1–1	5–1	3–0	3–1	4–1	3–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	2–1	2–0	1–1	1–0	5–0		2–1	2–2	3–2	3–1
Sampdoria	0–0	2–0	5–2	0–1	1–1	0–2	2–0	0–3	4–1	1–1	1–2	2–1	0–1	2–4	2–0	2–1		1–3	2–2	2–0
Sassuolo	2–2	0–2	1–0	1–1	3–2	1–1	2–2	0–1	1–0	3–1	1–0	2–1	2–0	2–1	2–2	0–2	0–0		1–1	1–1
Torino	2–1	2–0	0–0	1–2	0–1	3–1	4–2	3–3	0–0	0–1	1–4	1–1	1–1	1–2	2–1	1–1	2–0	1–3		0–1
Udinese	2–1	0–1	1–2	0–0	1–2	2–1	1–0	1–1	2–0	0–4	0–4	0–0	2–3	3–1	0–1	1–2	1–0	0–0	1–5

Source: Serie A
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Attendances

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Internazionale	865,226	79,154	31,494	45,538	+22.2%†
2	Napoli	736,434	56,452	18,766	38,760	+20.1%†
3	Juventus	734,580	41,305	28,899	38,662	+0.3%†
4	Milan	719,352	77,043	25,517	37,861	+3.3%†
5	Roma	668,449	55,508	27,000	35,182	−12.3%†
6	Fiorentina	545,947	36,297	22,791	28,734	−5.2%†
7	Sampdoria	417,513	31,375	20,223	21,974	+1.1%†
8	Genoa	405,813	31,770	19,061	21,359	+6.6%†
9	Lazio	399,471	31,108	10,000	21,025	−39.8%†
10	Torino	368,449	25,868	14,327	19,392	+16.2%†
11	Bologna	359,078	29,463	15,576	18,899	+24.5%1
12	Hellas Verona	345,678	23,423	15,198	18,194	−5.7%†
13	Palermo	324,241	33,445	10,223	18,013	+3.0%†
14	Udinese	307,974	25,467	12,704	16,209	+81.9%†
15	Atalanta	302,959	19,770	12,352	15,945	+5.2%†
16	Sassuolo	217,298	20,570	7,000	11,437	−10.9%†
17	Chievo	213,700	25,000	7,500	11,247	+5.6%†
18	Empoli	180,695	14,693	7,309	9,510	+3.0%†
19	Carpi	170,393	17,775	5,268	8,968	+197.0%1
20	Frosinone	138,478	9,400	6,007	7,288	+38.9%1
	League total	8,241,728	79,154	5,268	22,221	+0.7%†

Updated to games played on 15 May 2016
Source: Stadia Postcards
Notes:
¹ Team played last season in Serie B.

Season statistics

Top goalscorers Rank Player Club Goals[1] 1 Gonzalo Higuaín Napoli 36 2 Paulo Dybala Juventus 19 3 Carlos Bacca Milan 18 4 Mauro Icardi Internazionale 16 5 Leonardo Pavoletti Genoa 14 Mohamed Salah Roma 7 Éder Sampdoria/Internazionale 13 Josip Iličić Fiorentina Massimo Maccarone Empoli 10 Andrea Belotti Torino 12 Lorenzo Insigne Napoli Nikola Kalinić Fiorentina

Hat-tricks Main article: List of Serie A hat-tricks Player Club Against Result Date Nikola Kalinić Fiorentina Internazionale 4–1 Archived 1 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine 27 September 2015 Suso Genoa Frosinone 4–0 Archived 22 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine 3 April 2016 Dries Mertens Napoli Bologna 6–0 Archived 7 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine 19 April 2016 Gonzalo Higuaín Napoli Frosinone 4–0 Archived 16 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine 14 May 2016