It continues a mini revival that has seen Genoa go on a 3-1-0 streak after going 1-1-6 in their previous eight. The four game streak also ended a 70 year drought for the Grifoni.

For the first time in my lifetime (well, most peoples lifetimes) Genoa has three players in the Azzurri. It’s partly thanks to Daniele De Rossi’s injury, so maybe Inter should be credited with an assist, (I got that from goal.com, but alessio says that all three were original call ups and he is more reliable than goal ) but I think its well deserved and is great for the club.

The chosen ones are Raffaele Palladino, Salvatore Bocchetti and Domenico Criscito. So all Genoa fans should be celebrating today. Success breeds success and the more recognition Genoa players get, the more the club gets.

But back to the matches. Genoa took a 2-0 lead in the first hour thanks to Palacio and Crespo and it looked like Genoa might return the favour by posting a big win against Lille. However, some astute substitutions saw Lille draw level by the 85th minute. Genoa showed plenty of heart though and scored a late winner. Valencia and Slavia drew in the other game of the group, so Genoa have a good chance of progressing if they get a positive result out of their last match against Valencia.

It was a similar story against Siena. Genoa got out to a big lead, 3-0, then let the opposition back in, 3-2, before finishing it off with a late goal, 4-2. It leaves Genoa tied for sixth and just 2 points behind third place Milan. Inter are flying at the top, but it is very close after that. Genoa have a great chance of challenging for a top 4 position if they can keep up their recent form after the international break. At the same time, if they don’t, they could drop into mid table mediocrity quickly too.

Anyway, it has been a great couple weeks for Genoa after a difficult period and the club deserve to enjoy the moment.

Lille recently whooped Genoa 3-0 a couple weeks ago. Possession was shared 50-50, but the Lille attack proved far more effective having 12 shots to 3. You might think Genoa would want to hit back and put a heavy score line on Lille, but coach Gasperini has other plans.

“We cannot take to the field thinking of revenge. Our goal is to get three points. In a knock-out round it would be different, but in a group it’s all about obtaining points.” said Gasperini.

Clearly with his eyes on the prize, Gasperini knows 3 points is vital to Genoa’s Europa League hopes at this time no matter how many goals come with them. Genoa are currently 3rd in their group on 3 points behind Valencia on 5 points and Lille on 7 points and still have to face Valencia again.

Lille are currently 15th in Frances Ligue 1 and have suffered from some patchy form. Genoa have had a couple of good results in the league after a terrible month and will be looking to continue to build back to their early season form.

I hope Slavia Prague pull their finger out and get a result against Valencia. A Slavia Prague win along with a Genoa victory would put Genoa in a great position to get out of the group.

Genoa’s season started so well and then fell apart for a bit, but i think the Fiorentina and Palermo results might be a sign the club is back on track.

Hernan Crespo said he was happy with the point against Palermo saying “We wanted a result of this nature. Keeping a clean sheet at a difficult ground like this is a very positive aspect even if our mentality has always been that of being offensive.”

Francesco Modesto mimicked Crespo’s comments adding “We did not concede a goal, therefore it’s a good result.”

Perhaps this is a sign that the team has been focusing on defence, which I think is a good thing. Defence has always been a crucial part of the Italian game and I think if they can that sorted they can still push for a top 4 spot this year because we all know Genoa can turn it on in attack.

Genoa take on last placed Siena this weekend. Genoa are currently 7th in the league, but are only 4 points off second. If they can start a winning streak against Siena they could find themselves in the top 4 in no time.

I’ll finish with some of Genoa’s league stats.
- Genoa have gained 7 out of a possible 18 points on the road
- Genoa have conceded 20 goals so far this season, more than any other club
- Genoa have kept just 2 clean sheets this season, only Atalanta and Roma have kept less
- Genoa haven’t lost a game when they’ve conceded no more than 1 goal (4-1-0 record)

I think clearly Genoa’s two main goals at the moment should be keeping clean sheets and getting better results away.

Ohh… and for alex w, Inter Sucks…

Now Genoa face Inter, a match that could provide a lot of confidence for the run in to the winter break.

After going three games without a win, including the heart breaking loss to Valencia, Genoa might have been excused for going off the rails a bit. However, they put in a good performance against Bologna despite their history of travel troubles and now have some confidence again ahead of the match with Inter.

Inter have dropped points in their last two away games (1-0 v Samp and 1-1 with Rubin Kazan(Who??)), so their is call for optimism. Ignoring their “away” game against Milan, Inter are averaging 1 goal a game in their away games (although the sample size is admittedly small atm).

Genoa manager Gian Piero Gasperini criticised the clubs transfer policies this week claim the club had a “mid-term” approach, where as he believed the club could have built a squad to challenge for Serie A this season.

Hopefully the outburst doesn’t affect the players and Genoa can get the job done this weekend.

On a side note, who was surprised to hear of another Juve player getting done for drugs? It was a Juve drug scandal that led to the wire taps that revealed the Calciopoli scandal. I guess once a drug cheat, always a drug cheat as far as the old lady is concerned.

“Yesterday I was at San Siro and it looked to me as if they were missing the type of well-worked football that we have,” grinned the patron after the Nerazzurri’s 0-0 draw with Barcelona.

“We may not be individual world class phenomenons, but we are an excellent team.”

An excellent team they certainly are. The main goal for the club will obviously be to make the top 4 in Serie A, but I hope they put in a good effort in the Europa League. Genoa have a great chance in Serie A since Roma are no hope, Milan have a book full of issues and Fiorentina might struggle to deal with the loss of Felipe Melo.

Genoa missed out on fourth on head to head with Fiorentina last season and the Grifoni certainly appear to have improved much more than its top 4 rivals at this stage of the season. However, Genoa do appear to me to be Italy’s best shot at European glory this season, so hopefully they make a run at the Europa League too.

Also, on a personal note, I predicted a two goal win over Slavia. Last year MAD, of the Inter offside blog, gave me some shit about some predictions I made that didn’t pan out. So I’d like to take the opportunity to point out that once in a blue moon, when the planets align and George Bush completes a sentence with out a grammar mistake, I do get a prediction or two right.

Next Genoa travel to Chievo who have one win and two losses so far this season. Last weekend Genoa belted Napoli and Chievo were impressive against Bologna.

I think Genoa will win comfortably. They have a big squad and all the players seem to be able to slip in and out of the squad without effecting team harmony or results, so hangover from the win over Slavia shouldn’t be an issue and they are playing so well lately they must be brimming with confidence.

This fixture ended 1-0 last year and I probably shouldn’t make another prediction this season and retire with a 100% record, but I think Genoa could put quite a few past Chievo, I’ll say 3-1.

The first match-day of the Champions League didn’t produce much to cheer about. Fiorentina lost thanks to a red card, Juve threw away a lead at home (which leads me to question whether they are actually Italian), Inter were about as entertaining as an American sitcom in their draw against Barca and Milan’s semi-retired players beat Marseilles in the mud to be the only Italian team to have won in Europe so far.

So Genoa need to restore some pride to the peninsula as well as prove their European credentials are as good as their domestic ones with a win over Slavia Prague in the revamped UEFA Cup, now called the Europa League.

Crespo suggested that “We must forget the victory over Napoli, the fact we’re leading the Serie A table, forget all of it, because Europe is completely different. The atmosphere is very special. You have a different structure of qualification, there are long journeys, time spent before games in new places with other customs. These are all experiences that help a player to grow.”

Slavia missed out on Champions League qualification, losing on away goals to the mighty, 9 times consecutive Moldovian Champions and counting, Sheriff Tiraspol, who were knocked out by Olympiakos in the next round. A few years back Slavia had financial troubles and had to rebuild their squad around youth and a lot of their key players are still very young. Hopefully the more experienced players like my favourite, Hernan Crespo, can control the game for Genoa.

Slavia currently sit 5th in the Czech league with 12 points from 7 rounds (3-3-1) and are coming off a draw against mid table Slovan Liberec. Slavia have 10 goals for and 6 against, so they aren’t extremely prolific.

I’m going to say Genoa will win by 2 goals, fingers crossed…

“I am certain we will conclude negotiations for Quaresma next week.”

Of the talented Robert Acquafresca, it appears he is unlikely headed to Genova as Mr. Preziosi said, “I think he will go elsewhere with a team able to guarantee him first team football.”

Addressing concerns of Domenico Criscito and Raffaele Palladino, the president assured Genoa supporters that terms will be met with Juventus to seem them return:

“Our intention is to keep (Raffaelle) Palladino and (Domenico) Criscito. We will soon meet with Juventus and I am sure we will reach an agreement.”

After considerable thought this will serve as my final post. If you care to apply for this blog please contact Daryl with The Offside (click here) after reviewing the guidelines at www.theoffside.com/bloggers.

In addition to trying to woo Ricardo Quaresma to ply his trade in Genova, club president Enrico Preziosi is very interested in Olympique Lyonnais midfielder Juninho, Moussa Dembélé from Eredivisie champions AZ and Fernando Menegazzo from Bordeaux. Of the latter three the commentary seems more to be a “wish-list” best of players of interest. Whle Juninho at thirty-four years of age is definitely still remarkable from set plays, the young Belgian striker Moussa Dembélé is full of enormous promise and would be a premier signing for years to come.

For the most part the match was a well constructed encounter with relegation threatened Lecce showing well early on. However little by by little, Genoa ate away at their visitors lines and begin to pry them open. Midway of the opening half Sokratis Papastathopoulos created space on the right and sent a perfect cross into the box from the right byline that Crvena Zvezda product Boško Janković flicked artistically into the back of the net giving the Rossoblù. Down by one, Lecce showed tremendous pride and a few minutes past the half hour mark Simone Tiribocchi drove the ball to the opposite corner from the top of the box bringing the match even. Still all eyes were on Il Principe and with touch of the ball, the faithful rose to their feet, hoping and wishing that their hero would give them one last memory to cling to. That would come in time and oh how would it but first seven minutes into the new half, Diego drove into the area and from the left side of the area he laid the ball back to Domenico Criscito to pound into the opposite corner of the net. Now with a 2-1 lead, the stage was sent for the final Act to be played out. Four minutes shy of the hour, from the right Giuseppe Sculli fed the ball to the man of the day and after a touch for control he deftly chipped the ball in. The crowd roared its approval with ounce of strength it could muster but still there was so much more to come. With twenty-three minutes remaining Anthony Vanden Borre split the Lecce defenders providing Diego the perfect opportunity for this second of the day and he naturally obliged to make it 4-1, sending the faithful into rapturous delight. Despite a number of fine opportunities thereafter the match concluded without further mark but that of-course was only the opening Act for the day.

The real story of the day was not of the match or even Diego Milito’s “storybook” two goals but the tearful goodbye shared by fans and the player alike. There are annual “goodbyes” and even chances when teams thank their supporters but this was no typical encounter. Reaching to every corner of the grounds, his personal relationship with the fans was earnest and something rarely seen in the sport today. This wasn’t merely respectful or even of a man accepting of being the idol of many but a deep love and care for the area. Despite his tears, stripped of his kit, he reached out over and over to the fans, seemingly saying his heart will forever be Rossoblù.

The “how’s” and “why” the deal to see him off to Inter Milan is one to speculate and I very much doubt I will ever believe this is a deal Diego Milito wished to see happen. However one thing I am positive of after witnessing this outpouring today, Il Principe will forever be at home in Genova.