Genoa Club Amsterdam

After A.C. Milan (2-0) and A.S. Roma (3-1), tonight also Juventus (3-2) is beaten by a fantastic playing Genoa. Since the season 1991-1992 Juventus did not lose in Luigi Ferraris, but tonight they deserved it more as ever before !

In the first half Genoa played their best football of this season and maybe the best in 17 years. After the Gasperini-boys missed several chances it was Thiago Motta who scored the opening goal in the 28th minute. Just before the shot of Motta there was a whistle in the stadium, so Juventus protested heavily against the goal and it helped: in the 45th minute referee Rocchi payed the black and white team back by giving them an incredible penalty. Matteo Ferrari with a sliding touched the ball just before Del Piero could shoot on the goal, but referee Rocchi whistled a penalty: 1-1. The whole stadium was singing: “thiefs, thiefs” to Juventus as a reference to the Moggi-years in which period many referees were payed by Juventus. During the singing it was Thiaggo Motta who scored his second goal out of a corner of Criscito by a fantastic header: 2-1, halftime.

 

In the second half Genoa again was the best team in the field and the match seemed over when Camoranesi got a red card after a horrible action against Sculli in the 65th minute. With 11 against 10 Genoa got the best chances: a great header of Sculli was saved by Buffon and another header of Jankovic ended on the post, till in the 84th minute Iaquinta scored an undeserved and lucky typical Juventus-goal: 2-2. Genoa stayed calm and in the 88th minute the deserved winning goal was born: substitute Olivera reached the other substitute Rossi who passed the ball at the last moment towards one of the best players in the field Raffaele Palladino who beat Buffon easily: 3-2, another historical victory!

 

Our great President Mr. Enrico Preziosi has decided that the money of all tickets (32.336 at the moment) goes to the victims of the earthquake in Abruzzo. A fantastic offer of our number 1 because Genoa-Juventus is the match with the most visitors so far this season.

Since this afternoon Mr. Gasperini is preparing the match with the following 18 players:

Goalkeepers: Lamanna, Rubinho

Defenders: Biava, Bocchetti, Criscito, Ferrari, Sokratis

Midfielders: Juric, Mesto, Milanetto, Modesto, Rossi, Thiago Motta, Vanden Borre

Strikers: Jankovic, Olivera, Palladino, Sculli

With a collection of the supporters before the match and the victims of the dramatic earthquake in Abruzzo in the mind Genoa plays next Saturday against Juventus the topmatch in Serie A. Despite the easter-holidays already over 31.000 fans bought a ticket to see if Genoa after AC Milan and AS Roma also can beat Juventus in Luigi Ferraris.

Genoa has 6 ex-Juventus players: Criscito, Palladino, Sculli, Olivera, Milanetto and injured Paro in the selection this year and of course also our trainer Mr. Gasperini has a history inside the black and white club. Saturday all of them can show their old club that they improved so much, that Juventus made a big mistake by selling them to Genoa. Genoa surely misses the injured: Scarpi, Paro and Milito, while it is dubious if Torino-supporter Omar Milanetto can play against the other most hated team of Turin and Italy.

What a great season 2008-2009 ! After 3 draws in San Siro, home-victories against Milan, Roma and Sampdoria, the historical victory after 35 years in Cagliari also today Genoa wrote history. For the second time ever and the first time in 37 years Genoa booked a victory in Stadio Granillo in Reggina: 0-1.

At the moment the match started Fiorentina was on the fourth place in the standings after their victory (again in the last minute) in Bergamo against Atalanta, so Genoa had to win to take back the Champions-league position. Because of injuries Mr. Gasperini had to start without Milito (stayed in Genova) and Motta (on the bench), two of our most important players this season. After Genoa missed several big chances to open the score in the 68th minute our coach changed the team and the tactics by substituting central-forward Ruben Olivera by playmaker Thiago Motta. As often the tactical change of Gasperini was brilliant, especially because within 10 minutes Motta scored the only goal after a great cross of Palladino. In the minutes after the goal Genoa frooze the match and goalkeeper Rubinho hardly never was in danger to keep his goal clean for the third time in a row.

Tomorrow at the 30th playround of Serie A Genoa plays 1191 kilometers away in the deep South of Italy against the number last of the standings: Reggina. Despite the position of Reggina it will be a very difficult match, because Genoa did win only once (1972-1973) in the 14 played matches in Reggio Calabria. Our trainer Mr. Gasperini selected the following 19 players that will have the support of 400 Genoa-supporters who leave the Capital of Ligurië later tonight by several coaches and a special train:

Goalkeepers: Lamanna, Rubinho

Defenders: Biava, Bocchetti, Criscito, Ferrari, Sokratis

Midfielders: Costantini, Juric, Mesto, Milanetto, Modesto, Thiago Motta, Vanden Borre

Strikers: El Shaarawy, Jankovic, Olivera, Palladino, Sculli

Within the selection of 19 players are 3 youngsters: Lamanna, Constantini and El Shaarawy who misses the Primavera-derby tomorrow. Also Thiago Motta flew with the team towards Reggio Calabria but it still is dubious if the Brasilian can play tomorrow in the team that misses banned Marco Rossi and the injured: Scarpi, Paro and Milito.

Today a shock went through the Genoa-family. Our topscorer and most popular player Diego Milito got injured Saturday-night during the match Argentina-Venezuela (4-0). Diego got injured at his right thigh leg and probably the muscle is teared. Genoa wants our striker to come back from Argentina as soon as possible to know more about the injury and to start the recovering as soon as possible. The first diagnose says that Diego can not play the next 3 or 4 weeks, while the derby is in 5 weeks. In the meanwhile Olivera, Jankovic and Palladino can substitute Diego as central-forward just as during the last injury of Milito when Genoa did win all 3 matches against Chievo, Torino and Lecce.

Our Brasilian central midfieldplayer Thiago Motta is healthy again and can play next week against Reggina. This week the agent of Thiago Motta told the press that our playmaker wants to play with A.S. Roma in the future. Our president Enrico Preziosi reacted furiously because Thiago Motta just 6 months ago signed a 4 years contract with Genoa after many clubs refused to give him a contract because of his fysical problems. Preziosi took the risk and he is te winner, but of course does not want to lose such an important player after only 1 season. The next day Thiago Motta, his agent and A.S. Roma said sorry to Preziosi, while our Brasilian player also said that he wants to stay with Genoa.  

This weekend 5 Genoani play with their National Team to reach the World-Cup in South-Africa next year. Diego Milito plays with Argentina against Venezuela (and Wednesday in La Paz, Boliva on top of the world), Bosko Jankovic plays with Servia in and against Romania, Sokratis Papastathopoulos defends Greece in Israel, Ivan Juric plays Wednesday with Croatia in Andorra and our talented defender Salvatore Bocchetti (who refused this week to play with Juventus next year) is selected for the first time in the Squadra Azzuri to play today in Montenegro and Wednesday at home against Ireland.

 

This afternoon Genoa plays against the only Italian team which is still present in European football: Udinese. The black and white team lost last Thursday by 1-0 against Zenit, which was good enough after the 2-0 home-victory. In the quarter finals of Uefa-Cup Udinese plays against Werder Bremen of Germany.

It looked like that besides the injured Motta, Scarpi and Vanden Borre, the banned Jankovic and the recovering Paro our team also had to miss Giuseppe Sculli against Udinese. This week was the process against our wingstriker who made the evil-sign after his red card against A.S. Roma. If you see that “worldleaders” like Bush and Berlusconi can make the sign without any punishment it is unbelievable that our Sculli would be banned of the footballfield for some weeks. Luckily Beppe Sculli did win the process, so he can play with the following other 18 players today at 15.00 hours:

Goalkeepers: Rubinho, Lamanna

Defenders: Biava, Bocchetti, Ferrari, Sokratis, Terigi

Midfielders: Costantini, Criscito, Juric, Mesto, Milanetto, Modesto, Rossi

Strikers: Ferraro, Milito, Olivera, Palladino, Sculli