Cornelius bags a hat-trick from the bench in Genoa thumping at Parma

STADIO ENNIO TARDINI (Parma) – Parma’s impressive run against Genoa extended to three consecutive wins on Sunday evening as they sent the Grifone back to Liguria having suffered a 5-1 hammering.

The truth is that it could have been worse for the Rossoblu had their hosts been more punishing with the chances they had.

But a four-goal margin is telling enough, and it’s likely to be Aurelio Andreazzoli’s final game on the bench.

Parma were dominant and could have gone ahead through any of Antonino Barilla, Roberto Inglese or Andreas Cornelius before finally taking the lead. Both Barilla and Inglese fired efforts wide, while the Dane made a mess of what was a simple chance to open the scoring.

That advantage came courtesy of Juraj Kucka who, for the second game running against his former side Genoa, got on the scoresheet for the Crociati. The Slovakian started the move before feeding the ball out right to Dejan Kulusevski who returned it, allowing Kucka to, at full-stretch, find the net.

The second came just four minutes later. Still riding the high of taking the lead, Matteo Scozzarella whipped in a freekick that Cornelius met and perfectly guided on its way into the far corner.

Three more minutes passed and Cornelius made amends for his earlier miss with a thumping second for Parma’s third. Another quick attack stretched the Grifone, leaving Gervinho to find the No.11 whose volley could be heard around the Tardini and nestled in the net before the sound had finished echoing back from the Curva Nord.

Cornelius impressively completed his hat-trick five minutes into the second half, despite not having started the match. Kulusevski again takes the assist, but the forward deserves the credit for his driven 20-yard shot that found the bottom corner.

Andrea Pinamonti reduced the deficit back to three immediately though, scoring against the Gialloblu once again after scoring his last goal for Frosinone against them in April.

Kulusevski deservedly got his own goal to add to his two assists thanks to yet more calamitous defending. He first managed a one-two with a hapless Genoa defender, before another charitably under-hit a backpass that he pounced on to round Ionut Radu and tap in.