Biella

Alberto Benettin had already worn the shirts of Zebre and Benetton, and Italy's, before he took over as head coach at Biella in 2019.

Founded in 1977, Biella spent most of that time shuttling between Serie C and Serie B, and their first piece of silverware, the Coppa Piemonte, came as early as 1978, against A.R. Torino. Promotion into Serie A itself did not arrive until 2018, under Aldo Birchall, and only as runners-up in the Serie B playoffs.

The club plays in yellow and green, taken from the city's own colours, and the bear on Biella's coat of arms gave the team its nickname, Gli Orsi. The step up in class showed itself immediately: their first fixture in Serie A Élite, in the 2025–26 season, ended in a 50–0 defeat to Viadana. Among those now expected to help close that gap is Giacomo Casiraghi, already capped at Under-20 level for Italy.

None of it carries the weight of the fixture against CUS Torino. The two sides meet in what is known in Piedmont as the Derby Piemontese, and for Biella, a club that waited so long for a top-flight season, that is the match the calendar is built around.