Category: News

Genoa wins again: 2-1 against Catania

Danilo after his first goal with Genoa

The new 3-5-2 concept of Mr. Gasperini with Borriello and Figueroa together as strikers directly gave us 3 points. After 14 minutes Borriello’s shot was saved by goalkeeper Polito, but the ball jumped towards Danilo: 1-0. Again after 14 minutes – this time in the second half – another goal of Genoa but very unlucky Bovo headed the ball in our own goal: 1-1. Of course Genoa did everything to win and in the 71st minute after hands of an Catania-player we got a penalty, that was realized by Borriello: 2-1. 

Genoa is now on the shared 8th position in the standings, together with Palermo and Sampdoria, the others of Genova that are our home-opponent in 2 weeks in the derby.

[youtube 2RHAXSu07gU]

Tomorrow: Borriello + Figueroa together ?!

Marco Borriello  Luciano Figueroa 

All the newspapers are sure: tomorrow for the first time Borriello and Figueroa start together in the line-up of Genoa. Mr. Gasperini doesn’t have many alternatives at the moment because Leon is injured, Sculli has some fysical problems, Wilson is still waiting at the transferdocuments from Brasil and Di Vaio was out of the team the last weeks.

Mr. Gasperini went this afternoon with the following 19 players in the Sheraton hotel near Genova-airport Cristoforo Colombo to prepare for tomorrow’s match: 

Goalkeepers: Scarpi, Lanza

Defenders: Bovo, Criscito, Ghinassi, Konko, Lucarelli, Santos

Midfielders: Danilo, Fabiano, Juric, Masiero, Paro, Rossi, Vanden Borre

Strikers: Borriello, Di Vaio, Figueroa, Sculli

Milan beats good Genoa: 2-0

Fabiano stops Pato

Without 4 line-up players (Criscito, De Rosa, Leon and Wilson) Genoa played a good match and lost only in the last 21 minutes. It was youngster Pato that scored in the 69th and 83rd (offside ?) minute both goals. Actually the match was over after 70 minutes when our goalkeeper Rubinho got a red card after saving the ball with his hands outside the penalty-area. Next week against Catania in Luigi Ferraris we surely miss Rubinho (red card) and Milanetto (4th yellow card), but let’s hope the 4 missing line-up players of today can return in the team of Mr. Gasperini.

Mr. Gasperini has defensive problems

Giuseppe Meazza

Genoa-coach Gian Piero Gasperini has defensive problems for tomorrow’s match against Worldchampions A.C. Milan. Domenico Criscito is banned because of his 4th yellow card, Andrea Masiello was sold this week to Bari while Cicco Bega and Gaetano de Rosa are injured. Only 4 defenders are left in the selection of 18 players:

goalkeepers: Rubinho, Scarpi 

defenders: Bovo, Ghinassi, Lucarelli, Santos

midfielders: Danilo, Fabiano, Juric, Konko, Masiero, Milanetto, Pato, Rossi, Vanden Borre

strikers: Borriello, Figueroa, Sculli

Besides the defensive problems, also the strikers Leon and Wilson are not healthy enough to play tomorrow in the biggest stadium of Italy. Because of the rivalty between Genoa- and Milanfans it is forbidden to Genoani to visit the match. 

Serie A halfway: Genoa (shared) 6th

Inter 49    19 15      4    0   43 13
Roma 42          19       12   6 1   37 19
Juventus 37    19 10   7 2     36   16
Fiorentina 34    19 9   7 3   30 18
Udinese 32    19 9   5 5   23 22
Atalanta 25    19 6   7 6   27 26
Sampdoria 25    19 7   4 8   25 24
Genoa 25   19 6   7 6   20 25
Palermo 25    19 6   7 6   27 33
Milan 24    17 6   6 5   28 16
Napoli 24    19 6   6 7   29 29
Catania 22    19 5   7 7   18 22
Livorno 21    18 5   6 7   22 28
Lazio 19    19 4   7 8   22 29
Parma 18    19 4   6 9   22 29
Torino 17    19 2  11 6   17 24
Siena 17    19 3   8 8   22 30
Reggina 17    18 3   8 7   15 26
Empoli 16    19 3   7 9   15 26
Cagliari 10    19 2   4 13   13 36

Halfway the season Genoa is on the shared 6th position. A fantastic result in our first 19 matches after 12 years in Serie A. The statistics say that 40 points is enough to stay in Serie A and 55 means Uefa-cup football. The target of the club for the first year is to remain on the highest level, so we need at least another 15 points.

Genoa beats Atalanta Bergamo: 2-1

Figueroa scores the winning goal against Atalanta

In a fantastic match Genoa booked the 3rd victory in a row, just as in the beginning of the championship. Honestly, Atalanta deserved at least a draw because the Lombardian team hit the post 3 times and their second goal was annulated, but that’s football and if there is one team which is hardly never lucky it is our Genoa.

Genoa started the match with the expected team: Fabiano returned in midfield and Marco Rossi substituted injured Leon as right-forward. In the first half an hour Atalanta was the boss in the field, but luckily for us they only hit the post twice. After 30 minutes Gasperini changed the tactics and the following 15 minutes Genoa was the best team in the field, but the score halfway stayed 0-0.

After 22 minutes in the second half Konko did not stop Floccari regulary, so referee Pierpaoli whistled a penalty. Doni scored from the penaltyspot: 0-1. In the 72nd minute everything looked over to Genoa, but the second Atalanta goal of Floccari was annulated because of off-side. One minute later topscorer Marco Borriello scored his 11th goal of the season: 1-1. In a fantastic atmosphere Genoa was not satisfied with a draw and in the 84th minute substitute Lucho Figueroa headed a corner near the second post inside the goal: 2-1. In the last 11 minutes Atalanta did everything to score the equalizer but all they got was another bal on the post of Muslimovic and a red card to trainer Del Neri because of protests. The score did not change anymore: 2-1, so Genoa ends the first half of the season with 25 points.   

 Figueroa celebrates his goal by showing a t-shirt with a foto of his brother that died in a car-accident

Belgium Anthony Vanden Borre 4th arrival

After days of rumours, tonight it was finally official: 20 years old Belgium international (17 matches) Anthony Vanden Borre plays the next 6 months with Genoa, while Papa Waigo has to wear the purple shirt of Fiorentina the rest of this season. Of course as the official Genoa-supportersclub in Belgium (and Holland) we are very proud and happy that again a player of our countries plays with Genoa.

Anthony Vanden Borre in Champions League with Anderlecht against Chelsea

Anthony Vanden Borre (1.85 x 78 kg) is born on 24th October 1987 in Linkasi (Congo) with a Belgium father and a Congolese mother that died last year. As football-player he raised in the youth of Anderlecht together with his friend Vincent Kompany who changed Anderlecht into HSV Hamburg in the summer of 2006. Anthony was selected at the age of 16 (!!) to the Belgium National team after only 5 matches in the first team of Anderlecht. On 28th April 2004 he played his first match with the Belgium National team against Turkey. As usual it is not easy to act normal if you are such an important football-player at such a young age and Anthony got some problems with his attitude.

After 69 matches in 4 years with 3 national titles he left Anderlecht last summer. The Belgium club did everything to keep the great talent in Brussels, but Fiorentina payed around € 3,8 millon and Anthony moved to Florence. The multi-functional player (right-defender, right-midfieldplayer, defensive midfielder) only played 5 matches (2 in Serie A, 2 in Uefa-Cup and 1 in Coppa Italia) in the viola-shirt. With Genoa he probably can raise as fast as in the beginning of his career. Mr. Gasperini is an expert in making young players very good in a short time, so it is a good move for both Anthony and Genoa. Welcome at the most beautiful football club in the world: Anthony Vanden Borre.

Today the transferdocuments of Matias Masiero arrived from Uruguay, so our new number 10 is, just like recovered Danilo, one of the 20 players that is now in the Sheraton hotel near the airport of Genova to prepare themselves for tomorrow’s match against Atalanta Bergamo. Not selected are: Bega, Coppola, Di Vaio, Leon and the arrivals of this week: Wilson and Vanden Borre.

Preziosi shows his South-American diamonds

Mr. Preziosi presents Wilson and Masiero

This afternoon in the press-room of Genoa headquarters in Pegli president Enrico Preziosi welcomed our 2 new arrivals from South-America: Wilson Rodrigues Fonseca (22) from Brasil and Matias Masiero (19) from Uruguay. Both players liked to play with number 10 on their shirt, but Masiero already arrived last week so he could choose first. Because the tranferdocuments did not arrive yet both players can not play against Atalanta Bergamo next Saturday.

Historical victory against Lazio in Rome: 1-2

Lazio-Genoa 1-2 (2 goals of Borriello)

The last victory of Genoa in Rome against Lazio was on 11th January 1959. Today, exactly 49 years and 2 days later, Genoa beat Lazio again by 1-2.

Mr. Gasperini again suprised everybody by starting with De Rosa and Milanetto in the line-up in stead of Santos and Paro, 2 of the best players in the last match of 2007 against Parma. But as often Mr. Gasperini was right with his tactical substitutions. In the first half both teams were equal, but in the 23rd minute Lazio scored the first goal after a mistake of Rubinho in the air: 1-0.

After half-time it was Genoa that was the boss in the field to score the equalizer. In the 51st minute Omar Milanetto was hit softly by a defender, but referee Stefanini decided to give us a penalty which Borriello scored: 1-1. Within 4 minutes Borriello doubled his and Genoa’s production by heading a perfect free-kick of Milanetto behind Ballotta: 1-2.  

Borriello scores his 10th goal of the season: 1-2 

In the last 39 minutes Genoa had a lot of chances to decide the match definitively, but till the last 94th minute we had to suffer. But us Genoani have a great suffering history, which helped us this time to beat Lazio in Rome after 49 years. Mille grazie ragazzi !!

1000 Genoa-fans in Stadio Olimpico supported the team to the first victory in Rome in 49 years   

Mr. Gasperini takes 19 players to Rome

Stadio Olimpico in Rome

Tomorrow the team of Genoa goes by plane to Rome, which is 500 kilometers away of Genova. Sunday-morning very early (mostly between 6 and 7 o’clock) around 1000 fans follow the team that plays for the first time in 12 years in Stadio Olimpico, with a capacity of 82.000 the biggest in Italy after San Siro.

Mr. Gasperini has selected 19 players for the important match against Lazio:

Goalkeepers: Rubinho and Scarpi

Defenders: Bega, Bovo, Criscito, De Rosa, Lucarelli, Masiello and Santos

Midfielders: Fabiano, Juric, Konko, Milanetto, Paro and Rossi

Strikers: Borriello, Figueroa, Leon and Sculli 

Genoa misses: Danilo (injured) and Coppola (not selected) in midfield and the strikers:  Di Vaio (not selected) and Papa Waigo (Afrika Cup). Because the official transferpapers did not arrive yet from Uruguay also Matias Masiero can not play this weekend, but he travels tomorrow with the team to Rome.