Author: Hans

Today the Italian Football Association has published the definitive calendar till the 34th playround. Usually the matches at the last 4 playrounds (35 till 38) must begin all at the same time (Sunday 15.00 hours) but this season this is only nescessary the last 2 playrounds. Despite this new rule it looks like that also this year all the teams play at the same time during the last 4 playrounds. Till the end of the season Genoa plays 3 homematches in the evening:

Saturday 11th April 20.30 hours Genoa-Juventus 

Saturday 18th April 18.00 hours Genoa-Lazio   

Sunday 3rd May 20.30 hours Genoa-Sampdoria

All the other matches, after tomorrow in Cagliari, start Sunday-afternoon at 15.00 hours.

This afternoon the plane with 19 players flew towards Cagliari. Genoa plays tomorrow with a very young team against Cagliari because the 3 experienced players Biava, Ferrari and Thiago Motta are all banned after their yellow card last week against Inter. If Mr. Gasperini plays in his usual 3-4-3 system probably the 3 defenders have an total age of only 64 years with Sokratis (20), Bocchetti (22) and Criscito (22). The following players, including Matteo Paro, are preparing themselves to play tomorrow at 18.00 hours the important match against Cagliari: 

Goalkeepers: Rubinho, Scarpi

Defenders: Bocchetti, Criscito, Sokratis, Rossi, Terigi

Midfielders: El Shaarawy, Juric, Mesto, Milanetto, Modesto, Parfait, Paro

Strikers: Jankovic, Milito, Olivera, Palladino, Sculli

The teams of Inter and Genoa already played 2 times in Giuseppe Meazza against each other this season. Both matches ended in a draw: 0-0 in Serie A and 1-1 in Coppa Italia. Genoa can play with the strongest team tonight in an almost sold out Luigi Ferraris. Mr. Gasperini misses only injured Matteo Paro and Anthony Vanden Borre. Our topcoach selected the following 18 players:

Goalkeepers: Rubinho, Scarpi

Defenders: Biava, Bocchetti, Criscito, Ferrari, Sokratis

Midfielders: Juric, Mesto, Milanetto, Modesto, Rossi, Thiago Motta

Strikers: Jankovic, Milito, Olivera, Palladino, Sculli   

Exactly 1 year and 4 days after his injury started in the match Genoa-Napoli, Matteo Paro today returned at the Gianluca Signorini trainingfield in Pegli. After the 2 operations Matteo trained several months in Chiavari, but now the last part of his comeback has to be realized at Genoa’s trainingfield. Maybe Matteo can play some matches at the end of the season, which seemed completely over for him. Welcome back Matteo !

In the meanwhile Genoa already sold over 5.000 tickets to the match Saturday at 18.00 hours against Inter. Probably the match will be totally sold out, because everybody wants to see if Genoa after Milan and Roma also can beat Inter in Luigi Ferraris. Yes we can ! 

The match ended just as it started: 0-0. In the first half Siena surely was the best team in the field, but our goalkeeper Rubinho was unbeatable. In these first 45 minutes Genoa had less chances than the hometeam, but our topscorer Diego Milito scored a regular goal in the 26th minute that was annulated because of off-side. Just before halftime Maccarone missed a big chance close to Rubinho. In the 2nd half Genoa was the best team and we also got the biggest chance when substitute Palladino hit the post in the 85th minute. Because of the draw we now have 45 points, 3 less then last year at the end of the season. After a victory next Saturday at 18.00 hours in Luigi Ferraris against Inter we have 11 matches left to beat our record of last year heavily and reach European football for the first time since it ended in Amsterdam in April 1992.

After the last training Saturday at 16.30 hours Mr. Gasperini and his staff took the following 18 players in the playerscoach to drive 3,5 hours towards Siena:

Goalkeepers: Rubinho (73), Scarpi

Defenders: Biava (25), Bocchetti (26), Criscito (4), Ferrari (13), Sokratis (15)

Midfielders: Juric (28), Mesto (20), Milanetto (77), Modesto (23), Rossi (7), Motta (88)

Strikers: Jankovic (17), Milito (22), Olivera (11), Palladino (10), Sculli (14)

Last year Genoa booked a 0-1 victory in Siena by a goal of Konko and earlier this season the homematch in Luigi Ferraris also was won by Genoa with 1-0, this time Giuseppe Biava scored the only goal with a header. With Siena play 4 ex-Genoani: defender Portanova, midfielders Coppola + Codrea and striker Ghezzal.

Because of the (little) problems after the match Genoa-Fiorentina the authorities decided that Genoa-fans could only buy 1 ticket themselves to visit the match in and against Siena next Sunday. It is also not possible to sell your ticket to someone else. No problem for at least 5.000 Genoa-fans that already bought a ticket to visit the match in the beautyful Toscany-city 307 kilometers from Genova. In the meanwhile the victim of the playerscoach of Fiorentina, Gabriele Amato is operated twice and gets better every day.