Serie A

In partnership with

Football Italia

·28 January 2024

Serie A | Genoa 2-1 Lecce: Ekuban stunner completes comeback

Genoa scored twice in six minutes with Mateo Retegui and an acrobatic Caleb Ekuban volley, as Lecce rue an early penalty miss.

This was a real relegation tussle, though the Grifone had dragged themselves into midtable after a six-round unbeaten run. Milan Badelj and Morten Frendrup sat out bans, with Junior Messias, Aaron Martin and Ridgeciano Haps injured. Lecce only missed long-term absentee Kastriot Dermaku, while Gabriel Strefezza was on the verge of a move to Como.

OneFootball Videos

Mateo Retegui forced a save at the near bottom corner in the opening minutes, but Lecce received a penalty when Pontus Almqvist cut inside from the right and was brought down by Johan Vasquez.

However, Nikola Krstovic had not scored for 13 Serie A games and that showed in his confidence when taking the spot-kick, trying to blast it down the middle, allowing Josep Martinez to parry.

Mattia Bani nodded over from a corner, but Krstovic did finally break his drought with a bit of luck, the shot from the edge of the area taking a massive deflection off Vasquez to loop over the helpless goalkeeper. Valentin Gendrey had worked hard to win it back.

Martinez flew to palm a Remy Oudin free kick out from under the bar, then Lecce had a double chance with the Almqvist effort charged down by Bani and Mohamed Kaba drilling the rebound inches wide.

Genoa came flying out for the second half, as Ruslan Malinovskyi’s rocket was deflected onto the upright and Wladimiro Falcone used his legs to parry the Vasquez follow-up.

Martinez rushed off his line to deny Nicola Sansone and Genoa equalised in chaotic circumstances, as Albert Gudmundsson’s free kick bounced off the underside of the crossbar, hit the line and then Retegui made sure nodding in the rebound from close range.

Genoa almost turned it around moments later, Falcone using his legs to parry Caleb Ekuban’s effort from nine yards.

It was only a warning, as Vasquez’s cross-shot was deflected onto the crossbar and Retegui nodded the rebound back towards Ekuban for a stunning, acrobatic volley on the turn.