Genoa defeated Cesena 3-1 at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris on Sunday afternoon in Serie A.
The Grifone were in control of the game from the start, and were two goals ahead by half time thanks to an Andrea Bertolacci header and a Diego Perotti penalty. Leonardo Pavoletti got the home side a third after the restart, before Carlos Carbonero got a consolation for the Cavallucci Marini, who saw Ze Eduardo get sent off.
The first chance was presented to the home side, when Leonardo Pavoletti’s effort from a free kick went high and wide off target on eight minutes.
They nearly made it a deserved 1-0 a few minutes later, when a pass across goal from Bertolacci landed beautifully in Iago Falque’s path, but the Spaniard’s shot went straight in the direction of the Cesena keeper and the away side were let off the hook.
The Seahorses couldn’t get their foot in the game as Bertolacci then had a shot on goal but it went wide and the match remained goalless.
The Rossoblu nearly scored again on 15 mins when Pavoletti’s effort from a few yards out went over the bar, although the 26-year-old Italian can be forgiven as he was falling down to the floor.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s defence weren’t slacking despite the lack of activity, however, and they managed to block an Emmanuel Cascione shot from outside the box, which was the first main chance Cesena had in the game.
Pavoletti then came back to attack the Cesena defence, when he linked up with Tomas Rincon and produced a shot from the centre of the box, but it missed to the right.
Milan Djuric then added to Cesena’s small shot tally, but neither side could make the breakthrough in the first half an hour of the match.
Genoa finally took the lead after 37 minutes, and it was 24-year-old Bertolacci who finally broke the deadlock, when he headed home from a Perotti cross.
On the stroke of half-time they got that second goal, courtesy of a Perotti penalty, and Genoa went into the break two goals up.
A pass across the face of goal then followed the interval, but luckily for the away side no Genoa player could get a touch on the ball to direct it into the back of the net.
They couldn’t stop attacking and Pavoletti finally got his first goal of the match and Genoa’s third, when he volleyed in a cross from Sebastian De Maio on 53 minutes.
Domenico Di Carlos’s side got a lifeline out of nowhere just before the 70 minute mark, when Carbonero tried his luck from range and the ball went over Mattia Perin’s head in the Genoa goal and into the back of the net.
Somehow Cesena didn’t get a second goal when Carbonero’s shot from a strong counter attack went straight at Perin.
To top the Cesena nightmare off, Ze Eduardo got sent off in injury time for pulling down Iago Falque as the last man on a counter attack.
