Football Italia
·1 September 2024
Football Italia
·1 September 2024
Genoa suffered their surprise first defeat of the campaign, as they paid for wasteful finishing and had some red card appeals against clinical Verona.
The Grifone had a fantastic start to the season, holding Inter 2-2 and winning away to Monza, even with a growing injury crisis. Mattia Bani and Alessandro Zanoli joined David Ankeye, Brooke Norton-Cuffy, Fabio Miretti and Alan Matturro on the treatment table. Hellas crushed Napoli 3-0 and then lost by the same result to Juventus, with Suat Serdar and Juan Manuel Cruz out of action.
Alessandro Vogliacco was left with a black eye after five minutes when charging down the Darko Lazovic strike with his face.
Genoa were unlucky not to take the lead on 28 minutes with a wonderful move, as Johan Vasquez started it, combined with Stefano Sabelli and went to finish off the outside of the left boot, thumping the crossbar.
Abdou Harroui responded and tested Pierluigi Gollini at the near stick, but the same player risked more than just a yellow card for his very high boot catching Vogliacco on the ankle.
It was Verona who took the lead against the run of play, as Gollini flapped at a Darko Lazovic cross from the left and allowed Jackson Tchatchoua to come sliding in at the back post.
Hellas then received a penalty for Morten Thorsby charging down the Pawel Dawidowicz pull-back with his hand, albeit from point-blank range. Casper Tengtstedt converted into the roof of the net for his first Serie A goal.
Genoa continued to waste opportunities, Messias skimming the far post with a left-foot curler, but so did Lazovic when getting the header all wrong on a Tchatchoua cross.
Ruslan Malinovskyi’s volley from a huge distance on a poor clearance flashed not far from the target.
Tchatchoua 55 (V), Tengstedt pen 64 (V)