Football Italia
·12 May 2024
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·12 May 2024
Sassuolo fumbled the lead for an unlucky 2-1 defeat away to Genoa that leaves them verging on relegation to Serie B.
The Grifone welcomed Albert Gudmundsson back after flu symptoms, but still missed Vitinha, Mattia Bani, Ruslan Malinovskyi, Junior Messias and Alan Matturro. Sassuolo gave themselves hope of staying up with a shock 1-0 win over Inter, though Gregoire Defrel, Samu Castillejo and Domenico Berardi were still sidelined.
The teams wore special edition jerseys with their maternal surnames on the back, in honour of Mother’s Day.
Genoa had the ball in the net early on after some truly chaotic defending, as Andrea Consigli flapped at the Aaron Martin cross, Matheus Henrique’s clearance somehow went back towards goal rather than away from it, turning into an assist for the Morten Thorsby header. However, it was disallowed by VAR due to a handling offence.
Armand Lauriente went down in the box after Koni De Winter trod on the back of his foot, taking the boot off, so Andrea Pinamonti converted the resulting penalty to give Sassuolo the lead.
Lauriente’s free kick was palmed round the post, then his first touch let him down, unable to make the most of a Johan Vasquez slip on the Josh Doig cross.
Gudmundsson also had penalty appeals rejected as he crossed paths with Pedro Obiang and they collided.
Genoa equalised from a set play, as Thorsby flicked on the Martin corner and Milan Badelj was left unmarked to nod in at the back post.
The hosts turned it around with a classic counter-attack that started in their own penalty area, Gudmundsson spreading to Caleb Ekuban, the roll across beyond Retegui, but bouncing in by accident off Marash Kumbulla’s shin.
Pinamonti pen 31 (S), Badejl 56 (G), Kumbulla og 63 (G)