Genoa surprasses Roma

Genoa surprasses Roma

Genoa defeated Roma by the odd goal in five after all the goals were scored in a dramatic second half at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris on Sunday night.

Domenico Criscito opened the scoring for Genoa in the 49th minute, but Roma turned the game around with goals from Rodrigo Taddei in the 54th minute and Francesco Totti 10 minutes later.

But Genoa refused to lie down and levelled again through Alberto Zapater in the 69th minute before Giuseppe Biava grabbed the winner seven minutes from the end.

Genoa and Roma occupied fifth and sixth place last season, but both have set their sights on finishing even higher this term.

And while there was little to separate them over 34 games last season, there was equally little between them over 90 minutes tonight.

Totti had the first chance of the game in the ninth minute when he beat a rigid Genoa offside trap to close in on Marco Amelia, but the Italy international goalkeeper stayed on his feet and accepted the challenge, pushing Totti's placed shot wide.

It was not the last time Amelia came to the Genoa defence's rescue, although the offside flag had been raised when he performed a similar save to deny Jeremy Menez 10 minutes later after Totti's lofted pass over the top appeared to have been timed to perfection.

At the other end, Hernan Crespo almost opened his account for Genoa with an angled shot on the turn which he dragged just inches wide of the far post.

Genoa were appealing for a penalty after half an hour when Marco Andreolli first muscled Crespo to the ground and then caught the foot of Giandomenico Mesto, but the referee twice waved play on.

Roma's own penalty appeal fell on equally deaf ears in the 38th minute when Marco Rossi used his strength to prevent Marco Cassetti from getting in a shot.

The game came to life in the second half with Zapater providing the chance for substitute Criscito to place a right-footed shot low past Artur into the bottom corner from 15 yards out to put the home side ahead in the 49th minute.

Their lead lasted just five minutes, though, before Taddei headed past Amelia after Totti's cross had been teed up for him by Menez.

Roma were transformed and almost went ahead when Daniele De Rossi played the ball into the path of Totti, but Criscito got back to make a fine last-ditch tackle before Totti could pull the trigger.

Moments later, Totti put Roma ahead, although he did not know much about it as he deflected Stefano Guberti's shot past Amelia with his back to goal.

The drama continued with Genoa levelling five minutes afterwards with summer signing Zapater scoring his first goal for the Rossoblu in style by curling a direct free-kick from 25 yards into the top corner.

Neither side wanted to settle for a draw, though, and it was the home side who went back ahead in the 83rd minute.

Palacios pulled his free-kick back to the unmarked Sculli, hose shot from 20 yards was only parried by Artur to the feet of Biava, who converted from close range to seal all three points for Genoa.