Joshua Zirkzee started up front for the hosts since Marko Arnautovic, Gary Medel, Lorenzo De Silvestri, Kevin Bonifazi, Nicola Sansone, and Nicola Bagnolini were still absent. Albin Ekdal, Simone Bastoni, Jeroen Zoet, M'Bala Nzola, and Szymon Zurkowski were not present for the visitors, although Dimitrios Nikolaou was back in the lineup. Semi-Automatic Offside Technology was used for the first time in a Serie A game in this one, which also happened to be the first match of the second half of the 2022–23 season.
In the first few minutes, Lewis Ferguson attacked Bartlomiej Dragowski's gloves from a distance, and Spezia lost Viktor Kovalenko to a muscle injury. Daniel Maldini, Kovalenko's replacement, took a shot on goal right away. Joshua Zirkzee was blasting in at the near top corner from close range when Dragowski sprinted off his line to make a critical stop. He then made another save on a bullet header from Ferguson from the next corner.