Football Italia
·15 September 2024
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·15 September 2024
Artem Dovbyk scored his first goal in the Roma jersey, but Koni De Winter snatched a last-gasp equaliser for Genoa, so Daniele De Rossi still waits for his first win.
The Giallorossi had Enzo Le Fée injured and Nicola Zalewski frozen out for rejecting a Galatasaray transfer, so Manu Koné got his first start. The hosts missed Junior Messias, Fabio Miretti, Alessandro Zanoli, Brooke Norton-Cuffy, Alan Matturro and David Ankeye.
Tennis champion Stefanos Tsitsipas took centre stage during the warm-up, as he has been a Genoa supporter since childhood and got to enjoy the atmosphere.
Paulo Dybala had penalty appeals waved away after 12 minutes for a Koni De Winter challenge and Johan Vasquez charged down the Gianluca Mancini header on the resulting corner.
Koné blasted over from the edge of the box and Dovbyk fired straight at the goalkeeper after a Dybala back-heel flick assist, but Pierluigi Gollini had to make a super reaction save after Stephan El Shaarawy controlled a long Mancini ball over the top.
Gollini parried a Nicolò Pisilli effort into the path of Dovbyk to turn in from six yards, but the offside flag went up for Mancini earlier in the move. After an extraordinarily long wait for the VAR check, news came through that the Ukrainian’s first goal in the Giallorossi jersey would stand.
Roma kept pushing in first half stoppages, Koné seeing his strike charged down by a defender in the six-yard box.
Alexis Saelemaekers sprained his right ankle at the dawn of the second half, so Mario Hermoso made his debut off the bench.
Gollini was called into action again on Dovbyk from close range after a free kick, while Caleb Ekuban twice wasted promising situations for Genoa down the right before Mile Svilar had to rush off his line to use his body against the striker’s finish.
The hosts were pouring forward and Svilar parried a ferocious Ruslan Malinovskyi free kick with difficulty, also getting behind the Vitinha follow-up.
Coach Daniele De Rossi was sent off in stoppages for two bookable offences, but moments later Genoa got their long-awaited equaliser. A Vitinha cross was whipped in from the left and Koni De Winter got between Evan N’Dicka and Hermoso for a towering header from six yards.
It was remarkably similar to the 2-2 draw with Inter here, which was also sealed late on by a defender.
Dovbyk 38 (R), De Winter 96 (G)