Serie A

Football Italia

·7 April 2024

Serie A | Verona 1-2 Genoa: Hellas humbled

Caleb Ekuban and Albert Gudmundsson completed the Genoa comeback and put Verona right back in danger of sliding into the relegation zone.

Hellas had dragged themselves out of the bottom three with a recent spurt of seven points from four rounds, losing only to Milan, but Giangiacomo Magnani was suspended and Juan Manuel Cruz injured. Genoa were without a win in four and had top striker Mateo Retegui sitting out a ban, plus Ruslan Malinovskyi, Vitinha, Giorgio Cittadini and Alan Matturro injured.

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Josep Martinez had a scare when pressed by Federico Bonazzoli and that sense of uncertainty was also behind the opening goal, as the ‘keeper came rushing out and was caught in No Man’s Land, allowing Bonazzoli to control a Darko Lazovic ball over the top and deposit into the empty net.

Mattia Bani threw himself in the way of a Tijjani Noslin strike, but Johan Vasquez was unfortunate not to equalise on 20 minutes when his looping header from an Albert Gudmundsson corner bounced off the top of the crossbar.

Genoa equalised on the stroke of half-time with a bit of luck, as Caleb Ekuban hadn’t really got proper contact when sliding in to meet the Ridgeciano Haps roll across from the left, but it bounced off Lazovic and back into the path of the striker to try again.

Bonazzoli should’ve scored another when he sprung the offside trap, but rushed the finish and turned wide.

That proved costly, as Genoa took the lead moments later. Vasquez dribbled past several players into the area and forced a reaction save from Lorenzo Montipò, as Gudmundsson was ready to tap in the rebound.

Montipò did keep the scoreline down with a tricky save on Morten Thorsby’s diving header from a Junior Messias cross.

Verona had the ball in the net on 71 minutes with Mitrovic rolling across for fellow substitute Karol Swiderski to tap in, but the assist-man was offside.