Palladino back in the team against Chievo

Rafaelle Palladino got injured against Atalanta

Finally Raffaele Palladino is back in the team after his misterious virus. Because Genoa plays so many matches in short term, Mr. Gasperini did not select Moretti, Zapater and Figueroa to have some rest in these bussy days. Besides these 3 players Genoa tomorrow against Chievo Verona also misses squalified Criscito and the injured couple Juric and Jankovic. Mr. Gasperini selected the following 19 players to stay nr. 1 in the standings: 

GOALKEEPERS: Amelia, Russo, Scarpi

DEFENDERS: Biava, Bocchetti, Esposito, Fatic, Sokratis, Tomovic

MIDFIELDERS: Kharja, Mesto, Milanetto, Modesto, Rossi

STRIKERS: Crespo, Floccari, Palacio, Palladino, Sculli

Zapater and Sculli give us a new victory (2-0)

The first goal against Slavia Praha by Alberto Zapater

Also in Europa League our Genoa is on top of the standings. Tonight the Gasperini-boys beat Slavia Praha by 2-0, while the other match in poule B: Lille-Valencia ended in a 1-1 draw. On Thursday 1st October the next round takes place with: Valencia-Genoa.

Both goals of Genoa were scored in the 1st half, by Alberto Zapater in the 4th minute:

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and by Giuseppe Sculli after a fantastic assist of Nenad Tomovic in the 39th minute:

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Tomorrow 19.00 hours: Genoa-Slavia Praha

Gradinata Nord changed into the flag of Europe, to celebrate the return 17 long years after Ajax-Genoa

Tomorrow-evening at 19.00 hours Genoa starts group B of Europa League in Luigi Ferraris against Slavia Prahia. Already 20.000 tifosi bought a ticket so they can see the return of Bocchetti in the team. Genoa misses tomorrow Biava (squalified after his yellow cards in both play-off matches), Juric, Floccari, Jankovic and Palladino. The following 19 players are selected by Mr. Gasperini:

GOALKEEPERS: Amelia, Scarpi

DEFENDERS: Bocchetti, Criscito, Esposito, Moretti, Sokratis, Tomovic

MIDFIELDERS: Kharja, Mesto, Milanetto, Modesto, Rossi, Zapater

STRIKERS: Crespo, El Shaarawy, Figueroa, Palacio, Sculli 

Genoa nr 1 in Serie A after beating Napoli: 4-1

Giandomenico Mesto is happy after his first goal with Genoa

Good times are back ! After the 4-1 victory against Napoli now our red and blue team is nr. 1 in the standings of Serie A, 39 months after we lost the first play-off match against Salernitana in Serie C-1. Genoa now has 9 points just like Juventus and Sampdoria, which makes Genova the football-capital of Italy just as 17 years ago in 1992.

The match against Napoli was not as easy as the final-result of 4-1 looks like. After 27 minutes in which Genoa was the strongest team in the field Mimmo Cricito got a irregular red card of referee Tagliavento because he screamed vaffanculo, but he screamed it towards ex-Sampdoria player Maggio not against Tagliavento. Exactly 15 minutes later Hamsik scored a fantastic goal to Napoli and the match seemed over with 10 players against 11. But we have Giuseppe Sculli, a player who knows how to act if a referee is under high pressure. After ex-Sampdoria player Campagnaro already earned a red, but received a yellow, card because of his kick in the face of our goalkeeper Amelia, in the 49th minute Sculli ran with him towards the goal of Napoli. At the moment Sculli finaly was in front of Campagnaro he fell down and the referee gave Genoa an undeserved penalty and Campagnaro an irregular, just as Criscito, red card. In the 51st minute Floccari realized the penalty (1-1) and both teams returned in the dressingroom with 10 players.

In the 2nd half there was only 1 team that played football: Genoa. In the 55th minute goalkeeper Amelia played the ball over 60 meters towards Mesto on the leftside who dribbled a few meters and shot the ball incredibly fast in the right-corner: 2-1. Fourteen minutes later substitute Palacio passed the ball at the right moment to the other substitute Crespo who showed that he still is a cool striker: 3-1. In the 87th minute third substitute Kharja scored the 4th goal by penalty after Palacio was stopped by Aronica at the moment he wanted to score. Game over, Genoa back at the top !

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Floccari + Crespo back in team, Juric injured

Sergio Floccari Hernan Crespo

For the first time this season our 2 central-forwards Sergio Floccari and Hernan Crespo are in the selected team of Mr. Gasperini. Tomorrownight at 20.45 hours against our friends of Napoli Genoa misses 4 injured players: Bocchetti, Juric, Jankovic and Palladino. Mr. Gasperini selected the following 20 players:

GOALKEEPERS: Amelia, Scarpi 

DEFENDERS: Biava, Criscito, Esposito, Moretti, Sokratis, Tomovic

MIDFIELDERS: Fatic, Kharja, Mesto, Milanetto, Modesto, Rossi, Zapater

STRIKERS: Crespo, Figueroa, Floccari, Palacio, Sculli

Derby Saturday 28th November 20.45 hours

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Highlights of Atalanta-Genoa 0-1 (Moretti) 

The Italian Football Association finished the match-calender till the end of the homeround. Genoa plays always on Sunday at 15.00 hours except:

Sunday 13th September 20.45 hours: Genoa-Napoli

Thursday 24th September 20.45 hours: Genoa-Juventus

Saturday 17th October 20.45 hours: Genoa-Inter

Wednesday 28th October 20.45 hours: Genoa-Fiorentina

Sunday 1st November 20.45 hours: Palermo-Genoa

Saturday 28th November 20.45 hours: Genoa-Sampdoria

Wednesday 6th January 20.45 hours: Milan – Genoa

Genoa beats also Atalanta: 0-1 (Moretti)

Moretti scores against Atalanta: 0-1

Again a victory, this time in Bergamo against Atalanta the team we could not beat yet in their own stadium since our return in Serie A just more than 2 years ago. The deciding goal was scored out of a corner by Emiliano Moretti in the 45th minute with a header. Because of the many injuries Mr. Gasperini chose Tomovic and Fatic in the line-up and both played very good. In the 2nd half Genoa had many chances to decide the match definitively but all were missed, so we had to wait till the 93rd minute before we finally could celebrate this important victory in a difficult away-match. With 6 points in 2 matches Genoa stays, of course, on top of the standings together with Juventus, Lazio and Sampdoria. The next match of Genoa is Sunday 13th September in Luigi Ferraris against our friends of Napoli and we hope many injured players can return in the team after the break of the National teams next weekend. 

Genoa-players celebrate the victory with the fans in Bergamo

Gasp: Offensive problems against Atalanta

The playerscoach of Genoa

This summer Genoa and Atalanta changed their central-forward: in the team of Bergamo plays now Robert Acquafresca (who is still owned by Genoa) and with us Sergio Floccari. A good choice of our staff because Floccari is more experienced and a young player like Acquafresca has to play every week to become more experienced. The only problem now: both central strikers of Genoa: Floccari and Crespo are injured while Acquafresca is healthy. Besides the 2 central-forwards Mr. Gasperini also had to leave the other strikers Jankovic and Palladino at home, so only Sculli, Figueroa and Palacio went with the playerscoach to Bergamo this afternoon. Besides the offensive problems also Bocchetti and Juric can not play tomorrow-evening at 20.45 hours.

Mr. Gasperini selected the following 20 players:

GOALKEEPERS: Amelia, Scarpi, Russo

DEFENDERS: Biava, Esposito, Fatic, Moretti, Sokratis, Rossi, Tomovic

MIDFIELDERS: Criscito, El Shaarawy, Kharja, Mesto, Milanetto, Modesto, Zapater

STRIKERS: Figueroa, Palacio, Sculli

Valencia, Lille + Slavia Praha opponents E.L.

Europa League

The draw this afternoon in Nyon, Switzerland brought Genoa in group B with Valencia (Spain, that beat Stabaek IF with 7-1 in the play-off round), Lille (France, beat Genk by 6-3) and Slavia Praha (Czech Republic, eliminated Crvena Zvezda by 4-2). Genoa starts at Thursday 17th September 19.00 hours with a homematch against Slavia Praha and ends the groupfase with another homematch exactly 3 months later at Thursday 17th December 19.00 hours against Valencia, the favorite of this group.

Genoa-fans celebrate the qualification after the play-off round against Odense BK

Genoa qualified after 1-1 (Criscito) in Odense

The Genoa-players celebrate goalscorer Criscito with the 1-1 equalizer in Odense 

Tonight Genoa draw 1-1 in Denmark against Odense BK which makes the total score 4-2 and qualification of Genoa in the Europa League. The goal of Genoa was scored by Mimmo Criscito in the 53rd minute. The openinggoal of Odense was unluckily scored by our central-forward Luciano Figueroa who headed a corner behind Amelia in the extra time of the first half because of the injury of Ivan Juric.

Genoa started the match with Figueroa in the line-up instead of slightly injured Crespo. After 10 minutes everybody, except Beppe Sculli, was in shock when Djemba Djemba headed Juric and our midfielder swallowed his tongue. Luckily Giuseppe Sculli has studied to be a doctor and he saved Juric who was substitued by Omar Milanetto. In the 38th minute Omar hit the post with a shot from just outside the penalty-area. In the injurytime of the first half Odense got a corner that was unluckily headed in by Figueroa, 1-0.  The sufference lasted only 8 minutes in the second half when Mimmo Criscito scored the 1-1 equalizer. After the goal of Criscito Genoa controlled the match which ended by 1-1.

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