Genoa 1-1 Fiorentina: Rodriguez header salvages point for La Viola

Date: 31st January 2015 at 7:59pm
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Genoa and Fiorentina played out a 1-1 draw on Saturday night at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.

The hosts took the lead via Ciprian Tatarusanu’s own goal, before La Viola equalised through Gonzalo Rodriguez in the second half.

The 10th minute saw Genoa fans and officials make their way into the stands as a protest against refereeing decisions in their defeat against Napoli on Monday.

The Grifone opened the scoring early on in the game courtesy of an own goal when Stefano Sturaro’s finish rebounded off the bar and hit Fiorentina goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu’s head before finding the net.

Fiorentina replied soon after, when Khouma Babacar tested Mattia Perin but the latter was equal to the youngster’s strike.

The game then saw an injury to referee Nicola Rizzoli who picked up an injury towards the end of the first half, and Marco Di Bello took over from the 2014 FIFA World Cup final official.

Tatarusanu made amends for his own goal towards the end of the half when he tipped away Juraj Kucka’s strike, thus preventing Fiorentina from going 2-0 down.

Nine minutes into the second half and Fiorentina had their equaliser when Matias Fernandez sent a cross to the far post before Gonzalo Rodriguez powerfully headed past Perin.

Rodriguez was once again at the centre of trouble, however this time the Argentine failed to wrap his head around Alessandro Diamanti’s cross.

Youngster Maxime Lestienne had the chance to put Genoa ahead, but his strike slammed against the near post much to the relief of Vincenzo Montella.

With 20 minutes remaining, Juraj Kucka could’ve found the net with a powerful free-kick, but his strike went wide of the post.

Nicolas Burdisso received his marching orders nine minutes from time for a tackle on Matias Fernandez, thus reducing the Grifone to 10 men.

Jose Basanta was next to test Perin’s goal, but the Argentine’s strike was kept out by the Italian international.

Lestienne caused Fiorentina all sorts of trouble on the night, this time the Belgian managed to find himself space before latching onto a cross from the right-hand side, but his header was saved by Tatarusanu.

Joaquin darted down the right-hand side with the attempt of grabbing a late winner in injury time, but his cross was punched away by Perin.

Diego Perotti came agonisingly close to winning the game at the death with a clever backheel, but thankfully for Genoa, the attempt did not find a net.

La Viola could’ve had a goal themselves in the 94th minute immediately after Perotti’s miss but Perin was equal to Alberto Gilardino’s left-footed finish.

 

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