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And that’s that. A reasonably good game, even if things did get rather scrappy in the closing stages. Genoa lacked ambition rather, even with their man advantage, and you suspect that had Milan not been reduced to ten just before half-time, then they would have probably done enough to come back and win this one.
Still, Genoa were the better team in the first-half, and held on in the face of some fine attacking from Balotelli (who was largely pretty good) and chums. That’s just their second win of the season.
Full-time: Genoa 1-0 Milan
Peeeeeeeeeep.
90 mins + 6: ...Balotelli swings the cross over, Ely is unmarked...but he heads wide!
90 mins + 5: Izzo fouls Balotelli on the left and this really is Milan’s last chance...
90 mins + 4: Rincon attacks down the right, but Genoa have been hanging on for a few minutes now and their attacks are decidedly half-hearted.
90 mins + 3: Bacca goes to block a clearance from Burdisso, is penalised for it, but carries on like the striker had just stolen his shoes. One suspects it was less outrage, more a tactic to waste time. Then there’s some jiggery pokery with the crowd keeping the ball, before two are thrown on. Old as the hills.
90 mins +1: Mihajlovic struts around his technical area dressed in his maroon waistcoat, like Mick Jagger if he’d gone shopping in Next.
90 mins: Four minutes of added time. De Sciglio celebrates by committing two fouls in 30 seconds.
89 mins: Bertolacci hoys over a free kick from out on the right, but Lamanna comes out to claim the cross. That golden Kucka chances might well have been their last.
88 mins: Ntcham tries a sneaky pass through looking for Gakpe, but the sub had stopped running, which was a set-back for the chances of that one working out, to say the least.
86 mins: Glorious chance for Milan, as Bertolacci and Adriano combine to create some space and set up a chance for Kucka, but he shovels it way over the bar. He should’ve at least hit the target with that one.
85 mins: One last sub for Genoa - Pavoletti’s assault on the linesman’s arm is over, and Serge Gakpe comes on.
84 mins: Balotelli swings a dangerous cross over from the right, but De Maio does well to stoop and head away with Bacca lurking.
83 mins: Genoa counter through the middle with Rincon, but is tracked back by Adriano, tripped, and the Milan man is booked.
81 mins: Balotelli charges through the middle and De Maio goes down clutching his chops, but he’s gently encouraged to get back up again by all concerned.
80 mins: Another sub for Milan, and they’re very much going for it - Bonaventura comes off, and Carlos Bacca is on. Looks like it will be a 4-2-3 system for the remainder.
77 mins: A combination of Bonaventura and Kucka try to create something on the left for Milan, but only succeed in hitting the first man a couple of times with their crosses.
76 mins: ...but he hits it at about waist-height into the wall.
75 mins: Change for Milan - Montolivio is off, and Juraj Kucka, a former Genoa player, comes on. Meanwhile, Balotelli is lining up another free kick...
74 mins: Perotti breaks down the left and tries a rabona cross, but he can’t get the required elevation on it and Zapata clears. The ball breaks to Capel who cuts in from the right and shoots left-footed, but that goes comfortably over the bar.
73 mins: Laxalt finds himself on the right and bursts into the area from that side, he cuts back to Pavoletti, who since the ball was played backwards can’t be offside, but he fires his shot just wide of the near post.
71 mins: Rincon goes to ground, claiming a slap in the face from Balotelli, but it was more a half-push near his face. Which isn’t quite the same. De Sciglio legs Capel up when the winger was going nowhere, which seems careless.
70 mins: Another change for Genoa, and Manchester City loanee Olivier Ntcham comes on for Marchese. Looks like Genoa will switch to a back four with Ntcham slotting into midfield.
68 mins: Chance for Milan, as Adriano lays back a cross for Bertolacci, who shoots low aiming for the bottom corner, but Marchese - who had fallen over after the challenge from Adriano - unwittingly blocks the thing while prone.
67 mins: ...but that time it wasn’t. Balotelli picks the ball up well inside his own half, brilliantly skips around a couple of defenders before Dzemaili wipes him out with a cynical trip. He’s booked.
66 mins: Balotelli cuts inside and tries to make room for a shot, but is tackled by a well-timed, but tough challenge from Dzemaili. Balotelli goes down clutching his shin, which may have been caught on the follow-through, but that was a fair tackle.
64 mins: Another chance for Balotelli, as Bertolacci sets him free on the left side of the box, but he’s off balance and shoots rather weakly, straight at Lamanna.
62 mins: ...and curls it just over.
61 mins: Adriano produces a nice flick to give Bertolacci a chance to run at goal, but Di Maio drags him to the ground, is booked, and gives away a free kick about 25 yards out, and to the left. Balotelli eyes it up...
58 mins: Pavoletti is put clean through on goal...but once more he’s halted by the terrible upswing of the linesman’s flag. Being caught offside three times in seven minutes is impressive, in many ways.
57 mins: A nice flick on by Balotelli gives Bonaventura a shooting chance, which he takes but the effort doesn’t have enough power and Lamanna deals with it quite easily.
56 mins: Sub for Genoa, with Figueiras removed, replaced by Ardmando Izzo.
55 mins: Laxalt is well and truly pantsing Calabria here, and once again dances past the young full-back, who chops him down and gets himself a booking.
54 mins: Perotti is causing one or two problems with some neat passes, and after a couple of those he tries to feed Pavoletti, but perhaps in some sort of tribute to departed Milan manager Filippo Inzaghi, he’s once again offside.
52 mins: Montolivio wins a free kick out on the left for Milan, which Bonaventura clips into the box, but Ely was doing some pushing, so nothing comes of it.
51 mins: Genoa launch a decent attack, keeping the ball for a while before Marchese loops over a cross from the left, looking for Pavoletti, but he was a yard or so offside.
49 mins: Brilliant stuff from Balotelli, who drives through the middle then plays Adriano in with a little rabona, the Brazilian shoots but it’s saved by Lamanna. Milan then claim a penalty as Bonaventura’s shot is blocked by Marchese’s arm, but the since the shot came from about four yards away, that would’ve been very harsh.
48 mins: Laxalt attacks down the left for Genoa, trying to get at Calabria, before cutting back to Dzemaili who tries a shot from about 25 yards, but shanks it and it flies well wide.
46 mins: The players are out for the second 45. Can Meeeeeeeeelan hold on, then come back? We shall find out soon, because that’s how time works.
You’d struggle to argue that Genoa haven’t been the better team in that half, although they have been rather fortunate in many ways. Their goal came via a whacking great deflection, and the dismissal of Romagnoli was part of some very inconsistent refereeing. Mihajlovic will have some work to do if Milan are to get anything from this one, but by withdrawing De Jong rather than one of the forwards it doesn’t look like he’ll be putting the shutters up.
Half-time: Genoa 1-0 Milan
Peeeeeeeeeeeeep.
45 mins +1: Sub for Milan, which is a bit odd in two ways; firstly that Mihajlovic didn’t wait the 60 seconds for the break, and secondly that it’s De Jong that is withdrawn. Rodrigo Ely is the man who comes on.
45 mins: Two minutes of added time, as Genoa immediately look to make the most of their advantage.
44 mins: Looks like De Jong has dropped into defence, and it might not be the worst thing - he’ll probably be better there than on the right wing, where he was basically playing for much of the previous 43 minutes.
43 mins: That probably was a booking, but Milan can feel slightly aggrieved given what this referee has let go elsewhere in this game.
Red card for Romagnoli!
42 mins: Zapata stupidly gives the ball straight to Capel, who runs at goal but looks like he loses control of the ball, only for Romagnoli to shove his arm across the Spaniard’s face, which earns him a second booking, and he’s off.
40 mins: Dzmaili takes the free kick, it’s blocked by Balotelli in the wall, but play is halted after Zapata collides with Pavoletti in the area, the former requiring some treatment. The referee instructs Milan to kick the ball back to Genoa, and there’s some dissent from the crowd as Balotelli goes on the wind-up to keep the ball from them.
39 mins: Genoa sweep down the pitch and Perotti feeds Pavoletti, but is tripped by Calabria. The young full-back looks like he’s drowning not waving, here.
38 mins: De Jong fouls two Genoa players in the space of about two seconds, and the referee decides that the second - a charge from behind on Dzemaili, is worth a free kick. Very good of him.
36 mins: Capel finds himself out on the right and cuts in, Arjen Robben style, firing a shot at goal, but it’s straight at Lopez and without the sort of power to trouble the keeper.
35 mins: A corner from the left for Milan is swung over, Balotelli and Zapata rise at the near post and the former gets there first, heading across goal but just wide of the back stick, with Romagnoli just unable to turn it home.
34 mins: A long ball into the Genoa box is vaguely aimed for Balotelli, who brilliantly controls it on his chest then even more brilliantly twists to create some space for the shot, but there are too many defenders to get through and it’s blocked.
33 mins: Free kick for Milan out on the right, which Bonaventura lines up. He whips the cross over but it’s headed clear before anyone from the visiting team can get near it.
31 mins: Bertolacci breaks towards the edge of the Genoa area and is tripped, but again no free kick is given. He needs some treatment for what looks like a dead leg, but this referee is certainly more of a ‘let the game flow’ type rather than ‘give free kicks when a chap is fouled’ official. It’s an interesting approach for sure.
29 mins: An error from Zapata gives Genoa an attacking opportunity, and Perotti gets down the right side of the area, flicks a cross over but Pavoletti doesn’t connect with an ambitious overhead kick attempt.
28 mins: Pavoletti does superb work holding up the ball and off Romagnoli, is eventually shoved to the ground by the defender but there’s no free kick given, for reasons only the referee will explain. Some pretty creative decisions from the man with the whistle, here.
27 mins: Balotelli lifts the ball over the top looking for the run of the hitherto anonymous Luiz Adriano, but Burdisso gets there just ahead of him and pokes it back to Lamanna. Brief hint of a backpass there as the keeper picks it up, but nobody seems that fussed.
24 mins: Rincon does well to get down the right, beats De Sciglio once but the full-back takes the ‘fool me once, shame on you...’ approach by simply wiping his opponent out. Bafflingly, almost hilariously, no free kick is given. Remarkable.
22 mins: Genoa are finding holes in the Milan defence. The shift the ball rapidly from right to left, where Laxalt is in plenty of space, and fires a low cross in looking for Pavoletti (unpenalised despite being in an offside position) but Zapata just gets there ahead of him and clears for a corner.
20 mins: Balotelli runs in from the right, tries to create a shooting chance but slightly loses control of the ball. He manages to get a toe on the ball and shift left to Bonaventura, who fizzes a rising shot at goal, but it rises, rises, rises just too much and goes about a foot over the bar.
19 mins: Pavoletti is perhaps slightly fortunate to avoid a booking after leaving one on Calabria.
18 mins: Romagnoli goes into the book for...well, it’s not entirely clear. A bit of wrestling? Some backchat to the referee? Seems harsh, whatever it was.
17 mins: Balotelli tries to get around Laxalt on the Milan right, but the wing-back gets his body in the way and is grappled, for which Balotelli is penalised.
15 mins: De Jong seems to be spending a lot of his time on the right flank, given that he’s on the right of the three centre-midfielders, but his crossing isn’t quite as strong as his ‘studs in the chest’ abilities.
14 mins: Capel runs clear and has the ball in the net, but he was helped out rather by Lopez staying exactly still, on the basis that the flag had gone up for offside. Which, as the replays suggest, was what we’ll call a ‘tight’ decision. And for ‘tight’ read ‘incorrect’.
12 mins: Bonaventura and Rincon do a spot of grappling in midfield, but it’s the former who is penalised and indeed goes into the book.
10 mins: Genoa counter and win a free kick to the left of centre, which Dzemaili lines up. He shoots, it takes a massive deflection off the end of the wall and completely wrong-foots Diego Lopez, curling into the corner opposite from the one he was aiming.
GOAL! Genoa 1-0 Milan (Dzemaili 10)
Via a big deflection...
8 mins: Di Sciglio gets down the left and crosses into the box, the ball eventually makes it out to De Jong on the other side of the area, but somewhat surprisingly he’s muscled out. Perhaps his powers are weakening.
7 mins: Genoa win a corner on the left, and there’s plenty of fun and games in the box with assorted pushing and shoving and so forth, which is all slightly academic as Perotti’s corner is dreadful, not beating the first man and barely making it into the box.
5 mins: Woof! Very close from Diego Capel, as Dzemaili shifts the free kick to the left, Capel shoots and it flies just wide of the post. Some power on that shot.
4 mins: Zapata climbs all over Pavoletti’s back as they go for a header about 25 yards from the Milan goal, a free-kick is rightly given but for some reason goes down holding his face. Well, the reason is reasonably clear, but it doesn’t work on the ref.
3 mins: Milan get a free-kick just inside their own half, and Motolivio skims it into the area....and straight through to Genoa keeper Lamanna. That was almost impressive in its ineptitude, given that it was not only too strong but delivered into an area with precisely zero attackers.
1 mins: And we’re away. Genoa start, and for those listening on the radio, the home side are kicking right to left.
The teams are out on the pitch, the captains are tossing up. Football!
Bit of pre-match reading, which doesn’t really have anything to do with this game, but is interesting nonetheless. Here’s Simon Burnton’s interview with Watford striker Troy Deeney:
For the new season the canteen at Watford’s training ground has been redecorated, with one end now plastered with pictures of and motivational quotes from some of sport’s greats – Michael Jordan, Pelé, Muhammad Ali – and the other dominated by a massive, many-times-larger-than-life photograph of Troy Deeney’s torso.
Deeney is more than a captain here, more than just the only currently playing survivor of the old club, an overperforming relic of the days before they were bought by a family of Italian football magnates and swept to the Premier Leagueon a tide of multinational talent. He is, in many ways, a personification of their transformation.
In the summer of 2012 Watford were heading for ruin and Deeney for prison, player and employer collapsing towards moral or financial bankruptcy. WhenGino Pozzo completed his purchase of Watford that June Deeney was four days into a 10-month sentence for affray (he served less than three), and both have since effected an extraordinary turnaround.
Interesting that, of the people polled on Football Italia.net, currently nobody thinks Juventus will win the title. Are we writing them off this early?
So Mario Balotelli does start, with Carlos Bacca dropped/rested on the bench, while elsewhere Ignazio Abate’s injury means whipper-snapper Davide Calabria remains at right-back. A few injuries and suspensions for Genoa, perhaps most notably for Goran Pandev and Issa Cissokho, banned for three and one games respectively after some naughtiness against Lazio last time out.
Team news
Genoa
Lamanna; De Maio, Burdisso, Marchese; Figueiras, Rincon, Dzemaili, Laxalt; Capel, Pavoletti, Perotti. Subs: Ujkani, Ierardi, Gakpé, Izzo, Lazovic, Tachtsidis, Raul Asensio, Lazovic, Ntcham
Milan
Diego Lopez; Calabria, Zapata, Romagnoli, De Sciglio; De Jong, Montolivo, Bertolacci; Bonaventura; Luiz Adriano, Balotelli. Subs: Abbiati, Donnarumma, Alex, Antonelli, Rodrigo Ely, Kucka, Nocerino, Poli, Suso, Honda, Bacca, Cerci
Referee: Paolo Tagliavento (Terni)
Preamble
It could be on, you know. In previous years Serie A has been a foregone conclusion, an ennui-filled chase for second place that everyone hollowly congratulates each other for while watching the last remaining giants of Italian football disappear over the hill, cackling with their arms full of silver. But this time Juventus are fumbling and stumbling, not quite able to figure out life in a post-Tevez/Pirlo world. When before a Juventus win in most games and indeed the title was as inevitable as Manchester United in the 1990s, now they seem to have forgotten how to do all that (unless it’s against Manchester City, of course), with just one victory and three defeats to their name in this nascent campaign.
So there’s a gaggle of teams forming to potentially take the crown, and while the front-runners are Meeeeeeelan’s flatmates Inter, 100% and skipping away at the top of the table so far, there’s little reason why Sinisa Mihajlovic’s side can’t be right up there when the last great scorer comes to mark their names. They’ve been an all-or-nothing sort of team so far, winning three and losing two, but this is a largely new collection of players and new manager getting used to each other, the alchemy therein being a rather unpredictable old beast. For their part, Genoa haven’t started the season in vintage fashion, losing four of their five games under our old pal Gian Piero Gasperini, and are in fact the only team that Juve have managed to overcome this season.
Of course one of the things we’re all interested in, or at least curious about, or at least vaguely aware of*, is Mario Balotelli. Why are we so fascinated with Balotelli? Is it the back story, a young boy from Ghana adopted by an Italian family who struggled against racism and made his way to the top of the game? Is it the idea of a very talented player who has never quite lived up to the promise? Is it a sort of tabloid fascination with a man who clearly has a self-destructive streak? Or is it that story about him going to buy an ironing board and coming back with some quad bikes and a trampoline?
Either way, it should be a good ‘un. Stay tuned, people.
Kick-off: 11.30am BST.
*Do email in if this isn’t the case. I can’t guarantee I’ll publish or even read the emails, but let your voice be heard. Nick.Miller@theGuardian.com.
Nick will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Jamie Jackson on Genoa’s Olivier Ntcham - on loan from Manchester City and touted as the new Paul Pogba:
After only four games of a two-year loan at Genoa, Manchester City’s Olivier Ntcham is already beginning to sparkle. The 19-year-old has swapped performing before the modest crowds watching Patrick Vieira’s elite development squad last season for the 36,000-capacity Stadio Luigi Ferraris and a starting place in Gian Piero Gasperini’s side.
Despite having never made a first-team appearance in City colours, Ntcham is mixing it with the aristocrats of Serie A, as he did in Sunday’s 2-0 defeat to a Juventus led by Paul Pogba, the high-class midfielder Ntcham is drawing comparisons with in Italy.
Ntcham, who like Pogba is French, arrived at the Etihad Stadium from Le Havre in 2012. Ntcham was a vital part of Vieira’s under-21 side who won last season’sinaugural Premier League International Cup. He played every minute en route to the 1-0 defeat of Porto in May’s final, which was staged at the City Football Academy and settled by Kelechi Iheanacho’s fifth-minute finish.
Ntcham, who wore the No8 shirt for City, is a natural in Steven Gerrard’s position at Liverpool. Despite still being a teenager he already appears a powerhouse, a quality that is balanced by mobility, the ability to play the simple or clever ball, and a natural instinct to ghost into the penalty area at the right time to score.
He is also a flexible footballer, and is proving so for Genoa. In the defeat to Juve at the Stadio Luigi, Ntcham again showed how his talent is being honed by competing in Serie A. Genoa, who finished sixth last season, went down to 10 men when the defender Armando Izzo was sent off before the break. At this stage a Juve side who featured Pogba, Mario Mandzukic, Álvaro Morata, Gianluigi Buffon and Giorgio Chiellini were winning 1-0. A second-half Pogba penalty confirmed victory for the visitors yet Ntcham was Genoa’s finest performer, operating in the No10 role.
Read the full story here:
