Category: Clips

Only 72 hours after the match against Odense our red and blue team again booked a victory: 3-2 against A.S. Roma. Mr. Gasperini changed his line-up at 5 positions: Bocchetti (injured), Milanetto, Criscito, Palacio and Figueroa were substituted by Sokratis, Zapater, Modesto, Rossi and Crespo. In the first half Genoa was for sure the best team in the field but we did not create many chances, while Roma only had 1 big chance of Totti that was fantasticly saved by Amelia. At halftime our coach substituted Mesto and Modesto by Palacio and Criscito, who scored the first goal of the season after only 4 minutes when he shot the ball with his right (!) foot in the far corner: 1-0. The happiness lasted only 15 minutes in which Taddei (header) and Totti (luckily touched a shot of Guberti) changed the score into 1-2. But Genoa with the help of the fantastic fans in the stadium did not gave up. In the 69th minute Juric was stopped irregulary by Andreolli just outside the penalty-area. Our new Spanish central midfielder Alberto Zapater shot the free-kick directly high in the left corner of the goal: 2-2.

 

The last 15 minutes both teams tried to win the match, but Genoa surely was the strongest. In the 83rd minute the reward arrived when Giuseppe Biava scored the 3rd and last goal behind goalkeeper Artur of Roma, who first stopped the shot of Sculli: 3-2.

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Tonight Genoa beat Odense BK by 3-1 in the first match of the Play-offs to qualify to the Europa League. With the injured strikers Crespo, Floccari, Jankovic and Palladino our coach Mr. Gasperini did not had a lot of choices between the strikers in his team. Genoa started with the following 3-4-3 line-up: Amelia; Biava, Moretti, Bocchetti; Mesto, Milanetto, Juric, Criscito; Palacio, Figueroa and Sculli. In front of 21.889 supporters Genoa started very agressive and already after 8 minutes Emilano Moretti with the help of a Danish defender scored the openinggoal: 1-0. In the rest of the first half our red and blue team was several times close to 2-0, but on the other side Odense hit the crossbar once. In the first 11 minutes of the second half Lucho Figueroa scored twice in front of his fans in Gradinata Nord. The 2-0 was a classical header of a central-striker:

 

The third goal was also made by Figueroa after Sculli hit the crossbar and Biava’s rebound was blocked by goalkeeper Carroll towards Figueroa who did not think for a second: 3-0. The joy lasted only 2 minutes when Gislason brought the 3-1 on the scoreboard. After the goal of Odense both teams had some changes, but the match ended with 3-1 and a heavy ankle-injury of our young defender Salvatore Bocchetti. The return is next week in Odense with a Dutch referee: Björn Kuipers.

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In Spain Genoa has beaten Villarreal, the topteam of Spain that reached the quarterfinals of Champions League last season in which they were beaten by Arsenal. Genoa missed all their international players (including Mimmo Criscito who played his first match in the Squadra Azzura) that played with their national team yesterday. In the 1st half Giuseppe Sculli scored the first goal with a header and just after halftime Hernan Crespo doubled the score. Villarreal scored by penalty their goal: 1-2 and Hernan Crespo missed a penalty that was deserved by captain Marco Rossi 20 minutes before the end. The victory 1 week before the match in Europa League against Odense BK is very important to Mr. Gasperini and his staff after the 0-3 defeat against Olympique Nice 2 weeks ago. 

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In the meanwhile Anthony Vanden Borre was rent to Porthsmouth (Premier league), so this season there is no Dutch or Belgian player in the team of Genoa.

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This afternoon Genoa did win the match against our friends of Torino. Diego Milito scored twice (0-1 in 32nd minute by penalty and 2-3 in 89th minute with a header), while Ruben Olivera scored the other goal (1-2 in 48th minute by free-kick).

The match ended with a big fight immediately after the last whistle of referee Saccani between a lot of players. Hopefully the victory of Genoa in the last minute don’t lead to the relagation of Torino or remarks the end of a very long friendship since 1973 between the fans. On the other hand: since Genoa-Venezia 11th June 2005 we know that you always have to play a regular match and always must try to win it. If another team can’t stand us because we beat them, it is their problem not ours ! 

 

Exactly 17 years, 1 month and 2 days after Ajax-Genoa (1-1) we are back in Europe! Since the match in Amsterdam at 15th April 1992 Genoa played 5 years in Serie A (92-93, 93-94, 94-95, 07-08 and 08-09), 11 years in B and 1 season in Serie C-1 (05-06) because of the punishment after Genoa-Venezia. Now 3 years later we are back !

In the match against Chievo Verona the team of Mr. Gasperini missed 5 line-up players: Biava, Sokratis, Mesto, Criscito and Palladino and this was the reason our team did not reach the usual level. After Genoa missed several chances it was Pinzi of Chievo Verona in the 34th minute who scored on the other side of the field: 0-1. In the second half Genoa was stronger with Vanden Borre at right and Juric in his usual position on the leftside of the midfield. In the 57th minute Diego Milito earned a penalty, which he realized himself: 1-1. After 64 minutes Mr. Gasperini changed Sculli by Olivera and our Uruguyan striker scored a fantastic free-kick only 6 minutes later: 2-1. Unfortunately this was not the last goal in the match: in the 85th Pellissier scored the equalizer: 2-2.

Genoa is still on the 5th position in the standings with 62 points, 5 less than Fiorentina but 5 more than Roma that plays in San Siro against Milan next week. If Genoa ends the season on the 5th position our boys have to play only 1 round of Europa League on 20th and 27th August to reach one of the 12 groups of 4 teams that play a full competition.

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Today Genoa played one the most bad matches of the season, but we had some excuses: at first of course the derby last week. We missed 3 important line-up players with Biava (injured), Ferrari and Motta (both banned) and also our supporters could not support the team today. Genoa started with the excepted 3 very young defenders: Sokratis (20), Bocchetti (22) and Criscito (22) and they saved the match together with goalkeeper Rubinho. After only 9 minutes Sergio Floccari (the newspapers say he already signed a contract with Genoa and plays with us next season) ran towards Rubinho and passed the ball besides to Valdés who could easily score the opening-goal: 1-0.     

Before halftime Genoa received 3 yellowcards and all 3 players are banned next week against Chievo: Sokratis, Criscito and Mesto. Only Diego Milito was once close to the equalizer in the 45th minute, but Rubinho saved the biggest chance of the first half of Atalanta by Floccari so we could be happy halftime arrived with only 1-0.

In the second half with Rossi and Jankovic in stead of Milanetto and Mesto our team played a lot better. Several chances were missed but in the 90th minute with 11 against 9 (Guarente got a red card after 2 heavy fouls in only 5 seconds and Floccari left the field with an injury after Atalanta already substituted 3 players) our defender Mimmo Criscito enlarged a shot of Diego Milito into the goal: 1-1. In the 3 minutes extra time Genoa tried to win the match, but it ended with the 1-1 draw.

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Because Fiorentina beat Catania on Sicily we are now 3 points behind them on the 5th position in the standings. The advantage to number 7 Palermo is 9 points with only 3 matches to go, so we only need 1 point to be back in Europe after the 1-1 draw at 15th April 1992 in the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium against Ajax.  

Tomorrow Genoa plays the first of the last 4 finals to reach Champions League, while qualification to European League (the new name of UEFA-cup) next season is almost nearby. Against Atalanta in Bergamo Mr. Gaperini misses banned Ferrari and Motta (both were send off by referee Morganti in the derby last week) and the injured: Scarpi, Biava, Paro and Olivera, so only 14 selection-players rest. This is the reason why Mr. Gasperini also selected 5 young players of the Primavera-team that this week won the Coppa Italia by beating A.S. Roma with 2-0 in the final. The 19 players for tommorow are:

Goalkeepers: Lamanna, Rubinho

Defenders: Ben Djemia, Bocchetti, Criscito, D’Alessandro, Sokratis

Midfielders: Costantini, Juric, Mesto, Milanetto, Modesto, Rossi, Vanden Borre

Strikers: Jankovic, Milito, Palladino, Romero, Sculli 

To all the Genoani that want to see the derby over and over again: watch this great video made by Genoa-supporter Francesco Colombo:  http://video.libero.it/app/play?id=c0ad24ee487f7dd35371a4ffd54e6c… 

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Genoa did win also the 2nd most important match of the season: the derby against Sampdoria. After the 0-1 victory in the first derby this year, now our Rossoblu team beat “the others of Genova” by 3-1. All 4 Genoa-goals in both derby’s were scored by Milito.

It has to be said: the first 25 minutes of the match Sampdoria was the best team in the field, but then Genoa and especially Milito start playing. In the 29th minute goalkeeper Castellazzi could hardly save a great shot of Diego into corner. As often the corner was precisly kicked by Juric on the head of Biava who headed the ball in the far corner of the goal where Diego Milito could easily score his 17th goal of the season: 1-0.

At the moment referee Morganti should whistle three times after the 3 minutes injury-time were played to stop the match because of halftime or 1 time because of off-side of Campagnaro, the Argentinian defender scored the equalizer: 1-1.

Just as in the first half also in the first minutes of the second part Sampdoria was the strongest team, but this time it lasted only a few minutes. In the 73rd minute the deserved goal arrived when Criscito blocked a ball that jumped towards Milito (in off-side position just as the equalizer of Sampdoria) who beat keeper Castellazzi easily: 2-1.

The last 23 (17 + 6 minutes injury-time) minutes were similar to the derby’s in Serie B some years ago. Too much passion, nervosity, agressivity and frustation inbetween the lines to play good football. The match ended with 19 players after red cards of Ferrari and Motta of Genoa and Campagnaro of Sampdoria. Believe it or not, with 9 against 10 in the 93rd minute the 2 Genoa-players Palladino and Milito ran alone towards goalkeeper Castellazzi and after the pass of Palladino topscorer Diego Alberto Milito could easily score his 3rd goal: 3-1, game over ! Genoa is the boss in the city this year !