This is The Genoan Journey. A one season experiment in which a young aspiring guy who doesn’t often watch Serie A becomes a fan of a mid-table Italian side in order to achieve happiness and a sense of value whilst writing weekly about the team’s endeavours. Forza Genoa!

When I came into this, I made a joke about becoming a supporter of a relegation fighting team, and at the time I thought maybe that was too pessimistic. However, 5 games in and still yet to record a win, it seems like the joke has backfired a bit and perhaps we are beginning to look like early relegation candidates. As you can see from this simple graph below, my happiness is in fact deteriorating as the weeks go by…

Another week goes by with chatter amongst the Calcio community citing that Ivan Juric will have two games to save his career. The game versus Internazionale and then the following game at home against Bologna – coincidentally the two sides that drew 1-1 in the match before – ending Inter’s 100% start. What an awful predicament for Juric, his side have been playing lovely football and their league position is hardly representative of the performances that the team are displaying on the pitch.

This week, Genoa played midweek against Chievo, but unfortunately, I was restricted to pure highlights and match reports for this one as I was away for the game – bloody midweek games! The game finished 1-1 and a lot of people argue that Genoa deserved more than just a point from this match, but a few mistakes cost the Grifone dearly. Not even the hero Pellegri could help Genoa this week, the boy who is built like a man.

The Opposition

Inter have made what most consider to be a great start to the season, and as mentioned before, had a 100% record until the Bologna game. They have a man up top in Mauro Icardi who scores goals for fun and have managed to keep hold of long-term Manchester United target Ivan Perisic – perhaps their best piece of transfer business this past window. Spalletti has them playing some great football at times this season, but even he is not entirely impressed by his team, stating that he is unhappy with his player’s performance against Bologna and expects a strong reaction in the Genoa game. For Jurics sake, I hope Inter save the reaction until the following match, the last thing Genoa need right now is an absolute hammering by one of Italy’s leading sides.

I have some lovely memories of Mourinho’s treble-winning side, and it is great to see Inter begin to head in the right direction after years of mismanagement and mediocrity. It has been 6 seasons since Inter last qualified for the top level of European football, which is a mad fact considering their stature as a club. It looks as if this season they will come very close to those Champions League qualification spots and as I have mentioned before, I have backed Icardi for the Golden Boot this season, regardless of Dybala taking an incredible lead already.

The Match

Coming into this game we have had a lot of bad luck in regards to injuries and suspensions, we are still without our midfield talisman Bertolacci as well as our big man up top Lapadula. However, in Lapdula’s absence Pellegri gets the nod – can he make an impact in what is perhaps his sternest test yet? Stephane Omeonga comes in for his first start, the former Anderlecht youth player will be looking to make an impact in a position usually taken by former Inter striker Goran Pandev.

Genoa have not won at Inter in 24 years, and since have only managed 3 draws… if we were to come away with another loss, a slip into the relegation zone would be all but inevitable.

The game kicks off, and instantly Candreva drives down the right-hand side and crosses a beautiful ball into the danger area, it falls to than man Ivan Perisic who volleys just over from 18 yards – kissing the crossbar on its way over. Again, very typical of Genoa, another slow start and it looked as if we would be chasing the game.

Inter clearly have quality, but in truth, after that moment it took them a while to flex their power on the match and in fact allowed Genoa to get into the game and keep a lot of possession. A few pot shots here and there from both teams but in reality the first half was quite drab for long periods. Adel Taarabt had a beautifully curving strike saved by Handanovic, who showed off how big he really is, he’s an absolute giant for any of you who have not seen him. If I were to guess, I’d say about 8ft 3.

To round off the half, Inter managed to hit the post thanks to Marcelo Brozovic. The young Croat found a tight pocket on the edge of the area and had a decent strike ricochet off the post – a real heart in mouth moment for the Grifone.

Going into halftime Juric would have been pleased with what he had just seen, Genoa had limited Inter to mostly long-range efforts and in fact probably had the better chances in the first half. Genoa were playing their typical high press game, and it was paying dividends. Whatever Juric had said at halftime clearly gave the lads a boost as they came out instantly in the second half and attacked Inter right away, with Omeonga flying down the right and finding Diego Laxalt who volleyed just over – perhaps he could’ve taken a touch, but in the moment he saw the headlines already written.

The hour marks strike and on comes Eder, a real game changer. I haven’t seen him play many times before, but he certainly made a big impression. Almost in the same moment as he comes on Inter just go wide from a corner, with that man Eder perhaps guilty of not touching it in at the back post. And 10 minutes later he plays a lovely one-two with Icardi and has a fantastic strike saved by our hero in goal, Mattia Perin. He looked lively, to say the least.

The game came in its last phases, and it was safe to say that Genoa had earned the draw, Omeonga even having a great chance to put the away side ahead in the final 10 minutes. But then, just as before, luck began to turn. A corner is whipped in and at the back stick, the man of the hour Danilo D’Ambrosio jumps ahead of 3 Genoa players and nods the ball past Perin with only 2 minutes left to play. Tears are flowing down my face as I write this.

A large sigh escaped my mouth, and after all the hard work the points were going to be staying with Inter. Inter had looked much better in the second half, but I think to win the game like that was unfair on Genoa… it wasn’t a well worked ‘Tika-Taka’ goal or a 45 yard ‘Thunderbastard’ from Icardi… it was a dodgy corner that should have been defended better.

To round off the game, Genoa got caught throwing too many men forward and Eder was threw on goal. Surely he was just going to bury it like an honourable forward. But no, one slight tug on him from Omeonga and the player goes down like an absolute melt – shameful. Omeonga sees red… but he wasn’t the only player to see red. After another week of looking like a new man, Adel Taraabt went into a challenge too aggressively and had to go as well. It is such a shame as he has been one of the best players this season so far and we may struggle creatively without him.

My man of the match this week is going to the young Belgium lad Stephane Omeonga for a fantastic performance. He was tireless, tenacious and really got in the faces of the Inter players. My dick of the day is going to go to Eder – after coming on and impressing me he turned into a right bellend (as explained before).

So there we have it, another loss and now we lie in 18th place. Juric is staring down the barrel and is moments away from having the trigger pulled. I sincerely hope that Genoa can get a result against Bologna, as I have said before I love Juric and I am a massive fan of his style. Long Live Juric. Forza Genoa!