Preview: Genoa-Siena – Be wary of the Griffins

By: Matthew | October 16th, 2008

This coming Sunday sees the return to Serie A action after a (somewhat) successful international break. Yes Italy sit proudly atop their group, but a lack lusture proformance against Bulgaria in Sofia and much needed win at home to men from the ‘black mountain’, is nothing to cry from the hilltops about.. Although as has been so often the case in Lippi’s reign as coach of La Nazionale, the performance is secondary to the result.. and with now 30 consecutive games unbeaten he deserves nothing but respect. The last thing we want would be to fail to get the results but at least look lovely whilst we’re doing it, like the Dutch for example.

Anyway, Week 7 of this seasons calander brings up an interesting draw for La Robur.. Riding a wave of momentum after a spectacular result over Roma last week, the focus this week will be very much whether they can capitalise on this and transfer it into their first away win of the season. Genoa, much like Siena, strolled to safety in last years campaign and this year with the inclusion of the excellent Milito have looked impressive and are even tipped for a European place come May..

All three points is by no means a walk in the park this weekend, but a Siena away win at the Stadio Ferraris although is possible if not too likely. Genoa are looking spectacularly inconsistant this year having failed to score back-to-back points in the past month.. But reason being that they are sitting on a very impressive home record.. Diego Milito has been firing on all cyclinders and aided by the ample talent of Palladino, but away losses to Fiorentina and Palermo, after tremendos wins over Roma and Milan, have all but broken any attempt to find form..
Siena’s fate, on the other hand have not fared too differently. They too have been dreadfully inconsistant but not through playing badly. Solid home form has also been there cruch while there travels have so far ended in only a few points. Although signs are looking up as Marco Giampaolo has a decent squad at his dispossal and, excluding the Udinese game, there are signs that he is starting to get the best out of this group.. the Frick-Maccarone strikeforce look as telepathic as ever.. now add that to a squad that is brimming with confidence and you have a pretty convincing arguement for a Siena victory.

The bookies have this game as strongly in Genoa’s favour.. and rightfully so with i Grifoni having won their last 5 home matches, but i just cant shake off the feeling that the form book will be turned upside down this week. One of the reasons that makes me confident is due to the events of last year.. Now everyone knows that what happened last year does not matter but this fixture does look a bit all too familiar. Last year both teams were suffering from a simillar lack of form, hovering around lower-mid table and were probabily comparing tactics on how they either team were ever going to win again, when Siena surprisingly stormed into a 3-0 with half an hour gone and ended the game as a contest.. It proved to be an almighty result and one that started the ball rolling for La Robur.. Here’s to hoping that this weekend we see more of the same!

Grazie mille e Forza La Robur!!