Genoa Club Amsterdam

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Every team in every league has an off-day a few times in a season. Our Genoa played such a bad match yesterday in Florence. The first shot of Genoa on the goal of keeper Frey arrived in the 60th minute which is incredible to a team that scored 5 times last week. After only 4 minutes Fiorentina already took the lead with a goal of Santana. Till halftime Genoa resisted but in the 2nd half also the second (dubious penalty of Gilardino) and the third goal arrived: 3-0.

Besides the defeat Genoa also “lost” Sokratis and Juric to play Wednesday against Palermo in Luigi Ferraris. Both players received a yellow card. On the other hand captain Marco Rossi returns Wednesday after his suspension against Fiorentina.

After the 3-4 defeat against Bologna 2 weeks ago again a fantastic spectacular game in Luigi Ferraris. This time also with our team as winner. Genoa played without a central forward because both Acquafresca and Suazo were injured, so the 3 wingstrikers: Palacio, Sculli and Palladino formed the attack. After Genoa hit twice the post and once the crossbar, Cagliari had opened the score with an irregular goal because the ball first was out of the field before Dessena scored, finally in the 36th minute our first goal arrived. It was Alberto Zapater who scored the penalty after Palacio was fouled. Within 8 minutes Genoa scored another 3 times by Palacio, Sculli and Rossi while also Conti of Cagliari scored, so the score at halftime was 4-2.

In the second half Cagliari opened the score again by a penalty of Matri after a foul of Bocchetti. Only 5 minutes later Omar Milanetto decided the match by realizing a great assist of Palacio: 5-3. Genoa is now 7th in the standings with 42 points, so we are back in the Europa League-zone. Saturday we play at 18.00 hours in Florence.

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Just as last season Inter could not beat Genoa in their own Giuseppe Meazza stadium. Last year it was Thiago Motta who stopped Zlatan Ibrahimovic c.s., yesterday it was the complete defence of Genoa that stopped the Inter-strikers: Milito, Balotelli, Pandev, Eto’o and Quaresma.

Mr. Gasperini started in the usual 3-4-3 system with Bocchetti in stead of the injured Dainelli and Mesto + Sculli as wingstrikers to support Suazo. Of course Inter was the strongest team in the field, but Marco Amelia was unemployed in the 1st half.

After the break Inter played more agressive and more offensive, but the Genoa-defence was very strong. Inter-coach Mourinho was squalified but tried to help his team in the last 20 minutes from the 1st row in the mainstand. He also brought extra strikers in the field with Eto’o and Quaresma, but nothing succeeded to break the Genoa-defence. On the other side Mr. Gasperini changed Suazo with Jankovic, but our striker already had to leave the pitch again within 10 minutes with a new injury. Despite the problems of Jankovic Genoa kept strong and took 1 point back home: 0-0.

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It was terrible weather in Liguria today which brought a lot of wind, rain and goals. Genoa took 3 times the lead, but Bologna always came back and 10 mintes before the end our ex-player Adailton scored his 3rd and Bologna’s 4th goal.

With David Suazo as substitute of Robert Acquafresca who scored twice last week against Udinese our team started very good. In the 8th minute Suazo opened the score to be very attent at the moment the goalkeeper of Bologna could hardly save the shot of Dainelli. Unfortunately Bologna scored the equalizer only a few minutes later when Criscito got the ball out of a corner on his knee and Bologna could score easily: 1-1. Genoa had to start again, but Giuseppe Sculli helped us to score 2-1. Also this time Bologna came back soon when our ex-player Adailton scored after a big error of Dainelli. Still in the 1st half it was David Suazo who scored his second goal this afternoon (just as Acquafresca last week) after a combination with Marco Rossi: 3-2, halftime.

In the second half Adailton scored his 2nd and 3rd goal (dubious penalty on the edge of the penaltyarea) which gave Bologna a 3-4 victory. The Gasperini-boys only hit 3 times the post and the crossbar in the 2nd half. Our second homedefeat of the season (other defeat against Inter: 0-5) was born and we missed a great chance to be inside the Europa League zone. We still have 12 matches to continue our European adventure.

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Yesterday-evening Genoa beat Udinese by 3-0. Our new central-forward Robert Acquafresca scored twice, while our returned Argentinian wing-striker Rodrigo Palacio scored the last goal. We have now 38 points in 25 matches and are 9th in the standings.

Mr. Gasperini again started with his new defence: Sokratis, Dainelli and Moretti and for the first time with the 3 strikers: Palacio, Acquafresca and Sculli. In the beginning of the match Udinese played good, maybe even better than our boys, but after 30 minutes the match changed. After goalkeeper Handanovic stopped a great shot of Sculli it was Acquafresca who scored in the rebound: 1-0, first goal of Acquafresca in Rossoblu. Despite serveral chances with this score also halftime arrived.

In the 2nd half Genoa played towards Gradinata Nord, as often the most favorite direction of the players. In the 8th minute Genoa got a corner. At the far post Acquafresca surprised defender Coda of Udinese but before our new talented striker could score he was stopped by Coda: penalty. It was only a delay of a minute before Acquafresca could score his first goal in front of Gradinata Nord because he scored the penalty himself: 2-0. Just a litte more then 10 minutes later Palacio headed the 3-0 behind Handanovic after a good cross of Sculli. In the last 15 minutes Jankovic returned after his heavy injury for the first time this season in our team as substitute of Robert Acquafresca who deserved the standing ovation of the public. 

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