Month: October 2008

The best player in the field against A.C. Milan and the man who let Sculli easily score in the 3rd minute against A.S. Roma: Andrea Gasbarroni is healthy again. This afternoon the offensive midfieldplayer played in the second half in the friendly match against Serie-D team Lavagnese. Also Matteo Ferrari, Omar Milanetto and Thiago Motta are back after their injury and are able to play against Siena next Sunday. Genoa beat Lavagnese on the Pegli trainingfield by 9-2 with 4 goals of Palladino, Sculli (2), while Thiago Motta and the youngsters Scotto and El Shaarawy all scored once. Potenza, Paro, Olivera and Modesto did not play this afternoon and also don’t have a chance to be ready before Sunday, while Sokratis and Rossi are banned because of their red card against Napoli.

Yesterdag Genoa played a friendly match in Sestri Levante a nice city at the sea-side between Genova and Cinque Terre. This summer Genoa trained the first 3 days of the season on the field of Sestri Levante Football Club while the Pegli trainingsfield not was ready yet. To thank Sestri Levante a team of Genoa played a friendly match yesterday against the hometeam. Because of  international matches with their countries and injuries Genoa missed almost all line-up players, but with Rossi, Juric, Sculli, Olivera and Palladino a few stars showed up to enjoy the 1000 present fans. Genoa scored 5 times: Sculli (2), and Brivio in the first half, Olivera and youngster Ben Djemia after the break.  

Matteo Paro was almost recovered of his injury since the match Genoa-Napoli at the 27th February 2008. Almost because just before he should play again his first match the left-knee reacted badly. Yesterday our friendly midfieldplayer was again operated on the same knee and it takes around 6 months before he can play again. Good luck Matteo! 

After the matches in Uefa-cup were known the Italian Football Association finally could publish the playdates of the Serie A-matches for the first half of the season. Genoa plays all the matches on Sunday-afternoon at 15.00 hours except:

Wednesday 29th October 20.30 hours: Genoa-Cagliari

Thursday 13th November 20.30 hours: Juventus-Genoa

Sunday 7th December 20.30 hours: Sampdoria-Genoa

Saturday 10th January 18.00 hours: Genoa-Torino

Till today Napoli was together with Juventus still unbeaten in Serie A. Genoa also missed Matteo Ferrari, Omar Milanetto and Andrea Gasbarroni, 3 of the best players of last weeks, so a very difficult match was expected. The start was even worse, within 26 seconds ex-Genoano Lavezzi scored the opening-goal: 0-1. After a goal of Milito was annulated because of off-side, just before halftime Sokratis Papastathopoulos scored his first goal with Genoa out of a corner: 1-1.

In the second half the match became even more spectacular. In the 51st minute Palladino scored a fantastic combination of Sculli and Milito easily: 2-1. The joy lasted only 3 minutes when Marco Rossi got a red card after a fall against Lavezzi. Of course Napoli did everything to score the equalizer, but it was Diego Milito who headed in the 73rd minute a cross of Juric behind goalkeeper Gianello: 3-1. Within 2 minutes Denis brought Napoli back in the match: 3-2. In the last 20 minutes (15 regulary and 5 very, very long lasting injury-time) a lot happened: 2 yellow cards to Sokratis, so Genoa ended the match with only 9 players, Napoli who wanted a penalty after a fall of Pia and a great save of Rubinho on a header of Denis just before the end, but happily no more goals so we did win also the 3rd homematch: 3-2. We are back at the left-side of the standings with 9 points out of 6 matches. In 2 weeks we play the next match at home against Siena.

  

Today in the topmatch against number 2 our friends of Napoli we miss a lot of players: the line-up players: Ferrari, Milanetto, Gasbarroni and Thiago Motta and the substitutes Potenza, Paro and Olivera. Mr. Gasperini selected yesterday also 19 years old youngster Matteo Perelli to have a complete selection of 18 players:

Goalkeepers: Scarpi, Rubinho

Defenders: Biava, Bocchetti, Criscito, Sokratis, Rossi

Midfielders: Brivio, Jankovic, Juric, Mesto, Modesto, Roman, Vanden Borre

Forwards: Milito, Palladino, Perelli, Sculli

After last year all public was banned to visit the match Napoli-Genoa, today the Napoli-fans are banned because of the problems in Rome during the first match of the season. It’s a pity because Genoa and Napoli-fans are close friends for over 25 years and there are never problems if the two teams play against each other, not even when they play against other for promotion to Serie A.  

In these times full of Serie A, Champions League and Uefa-cup Genoa has to play tomorrow-evening at 18.00 hours in the fourth round of the Italian cup against Serie C-1 team Ravenna. In the third round Genoa beat Mantova with 3-1 by goals of Olivera (2) and Milanetto. Ravenna has beaten Serie B-team Rimini (by penalty’s) in the second and Palermo (1-2) on Sicily in the 3rd round, so we can say they are real cupfighters.

Mr. Gasperini and his staff selected the following 20 players:

Goalkeepers: Rubinho, Scarpi

Defenders: Biava, Bocchetti, Criscito, Ferrari, Sokratis

Midfielders: Brivio, Cofie, Domingo, Juric, Mesto, Modesto, Roman, Rossi, Vanden Borre

Strikers: Jankovic, Milito, Olivera, Sculli

Because Genoa plays Sunday the important homematch against Napoli it is expected that tomorrow the substitutes will play against Ravenna. The expected line-up is: Scarpi; Sokratis, Biava, Bocchetti; Mesto, Roman, Vanden Borre, Brivio; Jankovic, Olivera, Sculli.