Eight years have passed since the last time: Biella-Cantù on 7 April 2013 was also the last victory of the rossoblù in Serie A, before the relegation that canceled for a long time the challenge that for the fans was the hottest and most heartfelt one. The moment of the intersection that the Barlera curve awaits perhaps most of all is December 5, the day in which the great rivals (even if in the Brianza Como the derby matches are against Varese and Milan) will return to the Forum forced, after the fall of the last season, in the purgatory of the A2 series that Infante and his teammates now know all too well. The responses of the calendar were made known yesterday afternoon, expected but not too much as is the custom of the pre-season in which it is thought that, after all, sooner or later we have to face them all. If the debut will be away to Sicily against Federico Massone’s Trapani on Sunday 3 October, the first at home will be seven days later against Assigeco Piacenza, an important part of the recent past of the new coach Andrea Zanchi, who will find the club that has long given him confidence. The trip to Udine from Antonutti and the return to the Forum against the renewed Capo d’Orlando will continue the first month of A2 and will anticipate the double Piedmontese derby inserted in the fifth and sixth day: he will be away from home in the first leg, on 31 October in Casale and on November 7 in Turin, and on the friendly parquet on the way back, on February 6 and 13. The thirteenth round will be played on January 2 (for Biella away to Milan) and there will be the obligation of simultaneous matches, often disregarded in the past season conditioned by the coronavirus, to establish the eight qualified, that is the first four of each group in the turning point, in the final of the Italian Cup. To award the trophy there will be one of only two breaks in the regular season, on the weekend of 13 March. The other stop will be on December 26, coinciding with Christmas. Only one will be the midweek shift, inserted on Wednesday 20 April in the second four-day clock phase. Until the twenty-sixth round, at the end of which the relegation of the last in the standings will be sanctioned, it will be played only on weekends.
In the last eight seasons, those after the fall in A2, Biella has made his debut with a victory only on three occasions, only one of which away (2018-2019 in Rieti). In the two most recent championships the first outing was at the sports hall Gianni Asti in the presence of Turin, with two knockout children also of absences. Last year the rossoblù lined up in eight, including grafts from the youth sector, with five players stopped by coronavirus positivity and one (Barbante) in the pits for an ankle injury. The last precedent against a Sicilian is instead of 2015, with the internal knockout against Agrigento.