Genoa see off La Robur..

By: Matthew | October 20th, 2008

Well all in all it was a pretty depressing football weekend for me.. Siena, Norwich and Juve all gunned down with only one goal scored between them!

Although I still have my confidence in the Siena squad this season it was evident yesterday that survival will be undoubtably based on rigid home form and that points on the road will be sparce and hard earned.. Genoa is not an easy place to go to pick up points and they have proved that every match at the Stadio Ferraris this season and La Robur’s trip there was no exception.

All-in-all it was a slow match in which the first half saw complete one way traffic from the home side who deservedly took the lead through Giuseppe Biava’s 20th minute glancing header.. Marco Giampaolo described it best when he describe it in his post match interview: “The regret is we did not play in the first half. We went out there as individuals, not as a team, and it showed. We handed Genoa 45 minutes of the match.” Infact Siena only got slightly better in the second half.. they still had terrible problems trying to contain dangerman Diego Milito and it was only thanks to (so far, my player of the season) Gianluca Curci, in the Robur goal, that kept the scoreline respectable.. It was not that Siena didnt have their chances however and a teriffic run by Daniel Galloppa unluckily ended with him smashing an angled drive onto the upright, whilst the follow up saw Massimo Maccarone fluffing a great opportunity from 6 yards. Although it hurts to admit it, if Siena had gained a point it would’ve been unjust.. It was not their best performance of the season and Genoa were the better team and deserved to keep their 100 per cent record..

However, i am not going to hit the panic button just yet, far from it! Siena are sitting sandwiched between Juve and Roma in the table.. they have a good home record and have never been a dominant away force.. the squad once again proved yesterday (in patches) that they are capable of good football and that are willing to chase a game and Giampaolo has continued an attacking mentality, the likes of which Beretta had instilled into the club, with attacking substitutions used to chase the game in the second half. This result may have put a damper on the spirit carried over from the defeat of Roma two weeks ago, but next weeks arrival of high flying Catania at the Artemio Franchi makes good reading as they too are another club struggling with away form.. Fingers crossed.

Genoa: Rubinho; Biava, Ferrari, Criscito; Mesto (Gasbarroni 53), Milanetto (Thiago Motta 15), Vanden Borre, Juric; Sculli, Milito, Palladino (Roman 68)

Siena: Curci; Rossettini, Ficagna (Rossi 80), Portanova, Del Grosso; Vergassola, Coppola (Ghezzal 56), Galloppa; Kharja; Maccarone, Frick (Calaio’ 60)

Ref: Ayroldi
Goals: Biava 20 (G)

out.