Fiorentina took the road northwest in search of a third straight win to give them their first winning streak since this time in 2019. Standing in the way was Genoa, who’ve developed a reputation for being very tough to break down under Davide Ballardini’s intermittent guidance; with a typically sopping Ligurian weather, it looked like conditions that would favor the team that wanted to sit deep and hoof it long.
Nevertheless, the Viola stuck to their plan and worked the ball around neatly in the first half, forcing Rossoblu goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu into action a couple of times but mostly scuffling to create much of anything. On the other hand, the hosts were even less impressive. The most notable moment was a scary one: Gaetano Castrovilli slammed into the goalpost and took quite some time to get up, although we later learned he avoided any serious damage.
The sun began peeking out in the second half and the Tuscans responded with a superbly thumped goal from substitute Riccardo Saponara. After a brief penalty scare (which replays showed was justly ignored), the visitors continued turning the screws and made it count when the Cheese set up Giacomo Bonaventura for a nice, albeit slightly scruffy, finish. The hosts got a consolation penalty with the last kick of the game as Igor “fouled” ex-Viola midfielder Milan Badelj in the box, but that couldn’t put too much of a damper on another excellent team performance.
Want to relive the whole experience? Well, lucky for you that we’ve got all of our usual coverage collected right down there. Happy reading.