Genoa burst Milan’s bubble
AC Milan’s dream of moving to the top of the standings at least for one night, was yesterday dashed to the ground by an inspired Genoa who crushed the Rossoneri 3-0.
It was the hosts who took the lead after 11 minutes when Tomas Rincon chipped up a cross for Nikola Ninkovic’s diving header from 10 yards, a goal on his first Serie A start for the club. Honda was hanging back and kept everyone onside when the Rossoneri defence had pushed up, while Poli lost his marker.
After the restart, the Rossoneri seemed livelier and there were three incidents in quick succession.
First Locatelli appeared to be tripped just inside the penalty area, but the referee waved play on. Bonaventura’s fierce strike from distance was fingertipped round the post and on the resulting corner a misplaced Bonaventura shot turned into an assist for Bacca, but Perin rushed out to the rescue at his feet.
That optimism evaporated rapidly when Rigoni went on the counter down the Genoa left and was hacked down by a reckless Gabriel Paletta sliding tackle.
Perin smothered scorchers from Juraj Kucka and Suso, but Poli capped off a dismal performance by stumbling in the box and slicing wide when running on to an inspired Bonaventura slide-rule pass.
However, Genoa doubled their lead when Leonardo Pavoletti spread the play for Riccardo Fiamozzi down the left and tried to slide on to the low cross, but Kucka got there first for an own goal.
Milan fell apart and Pavoletti did get his goal soon after, as he turned Romagnoli inside out to fire in oneon-one with a helpless Gianluigi Donnarumma. Today Palermo-Udinese Juventus AS Roma AC Milan Napoli Torino Genoa Lazio Chievo Atalanta Sassuolo Cagliari Fiorentina Bologna Inter Sampdoria Udinese Pescara Empoli Palermo Crotone P 9 9 10 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9
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Standings
W 7 6 6 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 1 0 D 0 1 1 2 3 3 3 2 1 1 1 3 3 2 2 1 4 3 3 1 L F A Pts 2 17 6 21 2 23 11 19 3 16 14 19 2 17 10 17 2 19 11 15 2 12 7 15 2 16 10 15 3 10 9 14 4 12 13 13 4 12 14 13 4 16 19 13 2 11 9 12 3 10 13 12 4 11 12 11 4 10 12 11 5 10 15 10 4 9 14 7 5 2 11 6 5 6 16 6 8 7 20 1 Verona Cittadella Entella Carpi Frosinone Spezia Perugia Benevento Brescia Spal Pisa Novara Bari Pro Vercelli Salernitana Avellino Ascoli Cesena Latina Vicenza Ternana Trapani P 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 W 7 6 5 5 5 4 4 4 3 4 3 4 3 3 2 3 2 1 1 2 1 1 D 3 1 4 4 3 5 4 4 6 3 5 2 4 4 6 3 5 7 7 4 6 6 L F A Pts 1 25 9 24 4 18 13 19 2 17 12 19 2 14 9 19 3 14 12 18 2 10 6 17 3 12 9 16 3 15 9 15 2 15 12 15 4 16 15 15 3 6 6 14 5 10 12 14 4 10 13 13 4 12 18 13 3 12 12 12 5 713 12 4 812 11 3 7 9 10 3 12 16 10 5 716 10 4 7 13 9 4 7 15 9