Genoa Club Amsterdam

Within 24 minutes the score was 3-0 and Mr. Preziosi stopped watching the match and decided in his car to look for a new trainer. Our President missed the first goal of Jorquera with Genoa, the only positive thing this horrible match. Just before halftime Igor Pandev scored 4-1 and in the second half we were happy that Napoli was satisfied with only 2 extra goals, otherwise it would be an even more dramatic result. Genoa ends 2011 on the 10th position in the standings with 21 points in 16 matches.

As we all know Rodrigo Palacio is very important to Genova. Without ‘the train’ Genoa hardly scores. Today against Bologna the former team of Mr. Malesani we needed the points to stay close to the Europa League-zone. In the first half Genoa took the lead by a dubious goal of Marco Rossi. At the beginning of the second half the deserved draw of Bologna came with a goal of Ramirez. After our ex-player Marco di Vaio hit the far post it was Lucas Pratto who gave us 5 minutes before the end the 3 points by scoring his first Italian goal in front of Gradinata Nord. A very important match to the standings, 1 match before the end of this year.

The match that was postponed at 6th November because of the flood, this time without the Dutch Genoani. With 5 defenders and only 1 striker (Zé Eduardo) Mr. Malesani believed in a miracle. Happily Diego Milito refused to score against us (and the team of his hart), so halftime arrived with 0-0. At the beginning of the second half Genoa played more offensively and scored with a header of Andrea Granqvist, but the goal was cancelled because of off-side. On the other side Japanese midfieldplayer Nagatomo headed the ball behind Frey and this goal was regular to referee Banti. With 0-1 the expected defeat arrived, maybe Mr. Malesani next time better can try to score to give the public a more interesting match and to have a real chance to win.

Unfortunately we had to play against Milan in a bad period of Genoa and a very strong period in the season so far of Milan. In the first half our defenders resisted, but 10 minutes after the break the match was decided. Referee Celi gave Kaladze his second yellow card and Zlatan Ibrahimovic realized the penalty: 0-1. Unless the squalification of Palacio Genoa tried to score the equalizer, after the debut of Zé Eduardo Milan keeper Amelia was finally under pressure, but a few minutes later Nocerino scored the second goal: 0-2. After this defeat Genoa is back at the right (so wrong) side of the standings.

Tomorrownight Genoa plays in Luigi Ferraris against champions of Italy: A.C. Milan. For the first time this season Zé Eduardo is selected, but probably only to be part of the team and not because he is already able to play. Mr. Malesani has offensive problems with the squalification of Palacio, our only top-striker in the team. Let’s hope this time offensive midfieldplayers like Merkel and Jorquera can score the goals. Kakhaber Kaladze and Alexander Merkel of Genoa and Marco Amelia of Milan play against their old team.

Of course Genoa was the best team in the field and of course we had a ball possession far over 50%, but our red and blue players had again big problems to create chances to score. In the first half only Palacio and Merkel were close to score a goal and we have to be afraid that players like Pratto and Caracciolo are just good headers but technically and especially physicly not good enough to play in Serie A. All Genoa-supporters are looking forward to the debut of Zé Eduardo and the tranfermarket in January, because we now only have 1 real striker: Rodrigo Palacio who gets more frustated every week and booked his 4th yellow card against Cesena, so we have to miss him Friday against Milan. In the second half Moretti made a stupid foul against Bogdani and the penalty was realized by Adrian Mutu, who also scored the fantastic second goal of Cesena. Maybe we have to buy this Romanian player in the winterbreak ?

After a very hard match Genoa is now 7th in the standings with 15 points in 10 matches. Miguel Veloso scored the only goal in the 86th minute, while Genoa already played the whole second half with 10 players because of the red card of Antonelli just before halftime. Now the disqualification of 4 matches of Kaladze is finally over.

At Thursday Genoa beat Bari in the 4th round of Coppa Italia. Valter Birsa opened the score in the 1st half with a penalty, but within a minute Bari scored the equalizer. In the 90th minute Jorquera finally scored 2-1 and the match seemed over but again 1 minute later Bari scored and we had to play 30 minutes extra. In the 114th minute Lucas Pratto headed 3-2 behind the goalkeeper of Bari and this time the team of Puglia did not score anymore: Genoa qualified for the 1/8th finals against Inter in San Siro. But first we have to play Sunday at the synthetic field of Cesena.