Italian Floorball Championship A1 2025/6: 1st and 2nd Matchday
- Alessio Casamassima
- Oct 8
- 5 min read
On the first weekend of the season, Spartak Floorball Milano will host the Roman team Viking and the boys from Geas Unihockey of Sesto San Giovanni in a repeat of the final of the 2024/25 Italian A2 Championship.
Great Italian floorball action takes place in Carnargo (Varese): on Saturday, October 4th and Sunday, October 5th, four of the strongest teams in the new Serie A1 will face off, including title favorites FC Dragons and Viking Roma. Meanwhile, in Bolzano, the South Tyrolean derby between Diamante and Sterzing will take place, with the latter winning in overtime.
This year, Spartak Milano returns to Serie A1 with a team composed of promising young players and proven veterans. As with the previous Coppa Italia weekend, the "new" Serena Benetollo and Elia Marinello will make their undisputed contributions to the two-day event in Carnago, along with the two recent additions: Elia Sturaro, a very young but tenacious player playing for Serenissima, and Patrizio Beccarini, a historic figure in floorball, both in Italy and abroad. Compared to last year, Coach Giuzzi therefore has the potential to experiment with new and different lineup solutions and can abandon the rigid differentiation between a front line of attack and a second line of defense that has led to the team's two consecutive wins in the Serie A2 championship.
Saturday, October 4, 2025
Spartak Milano vs Viking Roma 4-6
In their first match of the Italian Serie A1 Championship, Spartak Milan faced one of the strongest Italian teams. The Roman Vikings have won several Italian trophies and feature some top players from the Italian national team.
Despite the importance of the match, Milan's approach seemed very similar to the one they took in the Italian Cup against Sterzing. The white-and-blues suffered a heavy defeat in the opening minutes, a resounding 4-1 defeat from which they were unable to recover. Spartak Milan's only goal came from Beccarini, who, thanks to his experience, never lost his bearings even in the darkest of storms. In the first half, Rome played with ease, with the duo of Di Già and Rubeo single-handedly putting the Milanese defense on the ropes. Constantly sought out by their teammates, the two displayed a high-level floorball game worthy of the Italian Serie A1 Championship. Milan, though stunned, only really started to play in the second half, hoping to slowly build a comeback that would be incredible. The two goals came from Andrea Bortolozzi and Elia Sturaro, his first goal of the season.
In the blue-and-white comeback, the increasingly decisive Borto, now "Mister Power Play," stood out. He's an atypical defender, tough in the tackles but lethal in front of goal.
Despite a strong response, partly due to Viking's physiological decline (the Romans have only nine outfield players on the scoresheet), Milan's dreams of glory were dashed by a somewhat difficult surface for the fine Milanese setters (such as Fornari and Brembol) and by too many penalties, often too naively awarded.
Everything was decided in the first two periods, the first completely dominated by Viking and the second well played by Spartak. The third period was ultimately broken only by Brembol's final goal from behind the halfway line: a wonderful arc that pierced the opposing goalkeeper, distracted by Riki Ripamonti's skillful dribbling.
The match was difficult for Milan, who have never had much luck against the Vikings, but as in the Coppa Italia, the most worrying aspect was their approach. Milan surprised the team negatively with a consistently slow play, a lack of sense of sacrifice, and a lot of confusion that often led to dangerous nervousness.
Sunday, October 5, 2025
Spartak Milano vs Sesto Geas Unihockey 3-6
The two Lombardy teams are playing each other just a few months after that thrilling 2024/5 Serie A2 final, which ended with a resounding 4-0 victory for the white-and-blues. From the first exchanges, however, it's immediately clear that Geas is no longer the raw team it was last year and is determined to compete head-on with anyone in this Italian Championship.
The Rossoneri are faster and for the entire first half, they stifle Milan's play, which too often relies on futile and unrealistic long balls to number 33. Zinni, deployed as a front-line point-getter, consistently fights like a lion but is unable to easily find a shot or effectively pair up with his attacking partner Brambilla. Without their number 9, Fornari, the white-and-blue forwards are very confused and lacking a clear idea. On the other hand, despite the wide spaces left to Geas, the blue-and-white defense performed almost flawlessly, and the first goal came only from a low, indecisive move by goalkeeper Casamassima. The two teams were almost perfectly balanced, but something about the overall flow of the match did not bode well for Milan. Spartak struggled to build from the back: the play was very slow and predictable, and only Beccarini and Serena managed to find any good through balls.
In the second half, Coach Giuzzi's men took to the field with a different attitude and put the Rossoneri defense on the ropes with some offensive bursts. There were numerous shots on Geas's goal, but all were either off target or well saved by their goalkeeper, who was truly on form.
So everything came down to the wire in the third period. Despite some saves from their own goalkeeper (editor's note: he partially recovered from his initial injury), Spartak fell behind due to a precise diagonal shot from Sesto. The Biancoblu responded immediately, however. Brembol (Spartak's MVP) took a steal, piercing the Sesto goalkeeper's legs and restoring parity.
Unfortunately, it was just a flash in the pan, as Sesto resumed their attacking efforts with greater conviction and took the lead again with a long-range shot on a power play. The white-and-blues were unable to react to the shock and further complicated their lives by removing their goalkeeper in the final, very long minutes. The slow build-up from the back and the opponent's greater dynamism completed the rout for Spartak, who conceded two more open-net goals and emerged defeated from a game they never seemed to be able to win. Too many passing errors and too few dangerous shots for Coach Giuzzi's men. After a weekend marked by "tennis-like" defeats (6-4, 6-3), Giuzzi will necessarily have to regroup with a team that only a few months earlier had demonstrated its ability to play a completely different kind of floorball. Finally, credit where credit is due to Geas Sesto, who, starting with a very young team, has in just a few years created a team competitive even on such a prestigious stage as the Italian Serie A1 Championship.
Italian Floorball Championship 2025/26 - Matchdays 1 & 2
SPARTAK MILANO | VIKING ROMA | 4-6 |
FC DRAGONS | SESTO GEAS UNIHOCKEY | 6-1 |
FC DRAGONS | VIKING ROMA | 11-2 |
SSV DIAMANTE BOLZANO | STERZING | 6-7 |
SPARTAK MILANO | SESTO GEAS UNIHOCKEY | 3-6 |
Next appointment, October 25th in Carnargo (VA) for the third day of the Italian Floorball Championship Serie A1
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