Serie A | Genoa 2-1 Verona: De Rossi celebrates first victory

Genoa fought back from an early Rafik Belghali goal to earn their first win under Daniele De Rossi, as Lorenzo Colombo and Morten Thorsby kept Verona rock bottom.

This was a pure dogfight between two of the bottom three, separated by just two points going into Marassi. Daniele De Rossi had overseen exciting goal-packed draws against Fiorentina and Cagliari, but Brooke Norton-Cuffy was suspended after a red card, with Maxwel Cornet, Junior Messias and Hugo Cuenca injured. Hellas dropped to rock bottom after a painful home defeat to Parma and couldn’t afford another head-to-head collapse. Grigoris Kastanos joined Suat Serdar, Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro and Tomas Suslov on the treatment table.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Rafik Belghali wasted a promising opportunity when taking too long to get the shot away, so it was eventually deflected off Leo Ostigard.

Daniel Mosquera was tackled by Ostigard, but won it back immediately and his angled drive was parried by Nicola Leali at the near post, into the path of Belghali to give Verona the lead.

Hellas were forced into an early change, as Domagoj Bradaric pulled up clutching the back of his thigh and had to be replaced by Martin Frese.

Leali rushed out to smother at the feet of Mosquera after Giovane went for the assist rather than goal, so Genoa stayed in the game and were able to equalise.

Vitinha stood up a smart ball over the top for Lorenzo Colombo to control, let it bounce at the back post and fire in from seven yards.

Vitinha had the ball in the net straight after the restart, but knew he was already offside before the angled drive nestled into the far bottom corner.

Morten Thorsby’s header also flashed over from a free kick, and Genoa were cursing their luck as Ostigard’s header thumped the woodwork, but the move continued and Mikel Ellertsson floated a cross for Thorsby to nod in, turning the game around completely.

Verona fought back, Leali forced into a desperate reaction save from point-blank range on Gift Orban trying to tap in the Frese roll across.

Ruslan Malinovskyi drilled just wide from a free kick, but Leali complained he was fouled by Orban just before the finish was cleared off the line by Johan Vasquez.

Hellas had a huge chance when Giovane was allowed a free header on the Valentini cross, but it was too weak to surprise Leali.

Genoa 2-1 Verona

Belghali 21 (V), Colombo 40 (G), Thorsby 62 (G)