Its been a very difficult, long and tiring international break. Who the fuck wants such an early international break anyway? Just as we are getting into the swing of things the big man upstairs stops us from actually enjoying ourselves and says, “Look lads, you’re smiling too much – how about a slice of England vs Malta away to remind you all of how good your lives are”. And inevitably we will all moan and gripe about the break, but most of us will stay in and gaze upon a field of international stars and still deep down think, maybe next year is our year.

Despite this very slow week, this week has been a special one for the Genoan’s as it was their 125th birthday. With a club so draped in history it is rather fitting that the club is currently in talks to be taken over by a financial consultancy firm called the “Sri group”. Perhaps with this change of ownership, a new Genoa will rise to compete with the giants of European football.

In all seriousness thank god for the return of the league. It is upon us and we can all rejoice together, and to begin with, let me take you through my personal favourite goal of the last game week to help re-jog our cloudy memories. It has to go to Andrea Belotti, AKA the Torino Prince, against Sassuolo. A wonderful lofted cross in from the right is met by a spectacular ‘gymnast-esque’ leap from the young Italian who fires past a helpless goalkeeper. My words well and truly do not do this goal justice – so please tuck in to this delicious feast right here.

Serie A Vibes

For those of you who may not watch lots of the beautiful game, here is a quick summary as to what went down in game week 2 and maybe what we should look out for in game week 3.

In short, Spalletti managed to stuff his old team Roma thanks to a lovely brace from that man again Mauro Icardi – as I said a few weeks ago – my pick for the golden boot. Milan also continued winnings ways thanks to another goal from their young lad Patrick Crutone who has come through the youth system and despite their hundreds of signings this summer has managed to make an impressionable stamp on the first team, lets hope it continues! Napoli beat off their Atalanta counterparts 3-1 with some fantastic attacking football and a terrific goal from Piotr Zieliński, a close second in my goal of the week.

Congrats to SPAL as they gained their first win in the top division of Italian football since about 1066 BC with a delicious last minute winner against this weeks opponents Udinese. A lovely little fact here is that Marco Borriello opened the scoring. A one time West Ham striker and overall big journeyman he played for just about every team in Italy by the look of it with arguably his most successful period coming at… you guessed it, Genoa! Bring him back I say.

This weeks opponents as mentioned are Udinese. For me, I have fond memories of watching ‘Greatest Antonio Di Natale Goals’ montages for hours on YouTube. Every year I would sign him on Football Manager – the man bagged goals there is no denying it – 227 in 446 games to be exact.

But in 2017, it seems like maybe Udinese do not have the same talisman as they once did in Antonio. After a tricky start Udinese (2 losses against Chievo and SPAL), will be very keen to get the monkey of their back and attack Genoa from the off. I have heard from my ‘Italian sources’ that Maxi Lopez will be the guy to lead the attack. A veteran of the game, the former Barca front man believes he can still score at the highest level and Udinese have taken the gamble on him. One of my favourite stories is the story of Mauro Icardi and Maxi Lopez.

There are obviously a lot of versions to this story depending who you listen to but from my understanding this is how it went down. Mauro Icardi grew up watching Maxi Lopez and held him in very high regard, and eventually broke into the Inter team. As he did this he took a fancy to Maxi Lopez’ bird and decided to give it a go whilst their relationship was rocky. Of course Icardi got the girl and ever since the two big front men have occasional spats and handshake refusals. Essentially… MAXI GOT CUCKED BY MAURO!

I truly wish Maxi Lopez spares Genoa from the brutally aggressive hot streak that is just around the corner – It has been brewing like a volcanic eruption ever since the day his wife left him.

The Game

We lined up very similar to the first two games with the exception being on loan Milan striker Gianluca Lapadula starting ahead of Andrey Galabinov – who may have felt hard done by after having a decent start to the 2017/18 season. I have to admit, I did not

know many of the Udinese players as a Serie A fresher, but I do know Maxi up top of course as well as Behrami after his spells in England. I have also heard good things of their centre half Danilo as well – a strong defender who is able to play a bit.

Was this a game we should be winning? Yes, on the back of form alone we should’ve dicked these lads. A lot of journalists are saying this has been a critically bad start for Udinese and we should be taking advantage of this. Especially after playing very well against Juventus in our last match.

Decisions didn’t go our way at all, in a game marred by controversial decisions and VAR it was really tough viewing at times. The game kicks off during a torrid storm, rain battering the players. The opening is the antipathy of the Juve game – Udinese start very quick and it looks like the Genoan boys had left their heads on the beach during the international break. Notably, De Paul looked very sharp for Udinese, cutting in and taking a fierce shot early on. I would like to know a bit more about him, on the face of things he as the attributes of a decent player. I am going to keep an eye out for him and would be interested to hear other opinions on the guy.

Genoa looked to try and fight back but Udinese break due to a sloppy bit of play and win a very lucky free kick on the edge of the box. The ball flicks up and knocks Miguel Veloso on the arm – very harsh. The resulting free kick hits the wall and looks to have petered

out – the black and whites launch the ball back into the mixer and Emil Hallfreðsson volleys the ball cleanly against the woodwork rebounding to Jakub Jankto. The way the guy manages to keep the ball low whilst in the position he was in was fantastic. So often you will see these shots thunder over the bar but this one instead pounds into the back of the net.

The boys looked stunned, a harsh faint of luck had helped Udinese take the lead, although I think you can easily argue that the ball should have been cleared well before it nestled into Perrin’s goal. Genoa of course settled into their style after a few Udinese attacks, defaulting to their play out from the back mentality – very similar to the style you will see at Man City – of course not to the same success but it is still lovely to watch when it works. Although saying this, my inherently British football brain sees this “panzying around with the goalkeeper” malarkey as risky and I have to remind myself that football has evolved well beyond the long physical game that dominated certain British circles for a long period.

Just as Genoa begin to find rhythm, the unexpected happens. Udinese are looking to build an attack and get close the opposition box. The ball is played into Kevin Lasagna but who is there with an enormous tackle, Betrolacci of course. In real time, it is fantastic two footed interception that brings the Genoans to their feet. Aggressive? Yes but on the face of it, the tackle looked good. However, the referee pauses… and then it happens.

The VAR is called into action – minutes pass and again it drags and drags until we find out the verdict. A red card for the Genoan man.

At first the tackle looked great but upon further inspection, it was very very dangerous and could’ve easily snapped the poor guy in half. The right call it was but again the decision took far too long to get to. And to top off the misery the resulting free kick from that man De Paul forces Perrin into another fantastic save.

From this point, the game was almost dead and buried – Udinese didn’t necessarily lock the game down at all but Genoa just could not get into their stride at all for a long time after this. Possession was still fairly 50/50 and Stephane Omeanga came on for Goran Pandev to fill the hole in midfield. Perhaps this is why when it got into the final third there was not much happening. Lapadula going off at the 30 minute stage for Galabinov was not a factor in this slow down I don’t think. Lapadula looked average, but for the 30 minutes he was on he did not trouble Udinese much at all bar a run or two in behind – disappointing.

The player that did do well on the pitch was Adel Taarabt. Maybe some of you will be surprised by this as the first few posts I did slate him but against Udinese he was everything great about Genoa when they got forward. The jinking runs, the nutmegs,

the quick interchanges with his team mates. Indeed, Adel looked to be the only attacking player who could even come close to causing Udinese some problems. This did almost come to fruition when in the 80th minute he rolled back the years with a great run, taking it past an on rushing defender and shooting just wide from 25 yards – delicious.

Finally, I guess a couple of the guys on the pitch were finding the game a bit boring… and this showed when late Udinese substitute Guiseppe Pezzella decided to quite frankly, and this isn’t exaggeration, assault Omeanga.. I shit you not, this may have been the worst foul I have seen in a long time, it makes the Bertolacci red look soft. God knows what he was thinking, but it made the final 10 minutes watchable as Genoa pressed more and tried to go for it – although only carving out one real chance for Adel that went wide.

In general, I am really disappointed in the game, we started slow and Udinese took advantage of this. Yes, we stuck to our style and didn’t let the flood gates open despite going one down – but there was no impetus when going forward and almost every set piece was instantly cleared. We need to work on our final balls as we get into the right areas but the final cross or that last pass is always too much or barely enough. With Lapadula now out for at least a month I am worried about our potential attacking threat.

To round up, my man of the match for the Udinese game was Adel Taarabt. He was, in my opinion, the only player who looked like troubling the Udinese defense at all. He looked sharp with constant flicks and had a few testing shots that were either well saved or just went wide. It was like watching a 2010 in form QPR Adel Taarabt all over again. My dick of the day was going to go to Pazzella for that horrifically cunty challenge – but I am sure a lot of you saw the true dick of the day circulating social media just after the game. Poor Goran!

This week we have Lazio and to say that we will need a miracle is not underplaying this. Lazio are coming off the back of an enormous 4-1 victory over Milan, bringing the Rossineri back down to earth. Without Bertolacci and Lapadula we are going to need

our other lads to step up and bring their A game. Regretfully, I am predicting a 3-0 loss – I can’t see us getting anything out of the next game.

Forza Genoa!