Serie A | Pisa 1-2 Genoa: Grifone practically guarantee top flight ticket
Genoa completed a comeback victory in Pisa with Jeff Ekhator and Lorenzo Colombo to practically guarantee their Serie A status for another season.
This was a big opportunity for Daniele De Rossi to definitively break free of the danger zone, coming off a crucial 2-1 victory over Sassuolo. However, that ill-tempered match meant Ruslan Malinovskyi, Morten Frendrup and Mikael Ellertsson all sat out bans, with Maxwel Cornet, Brooke Norton-Cuffy and Benjamin Siegrist injured. Pisa remained rock bottom and missed Marius Marin along with the usual Daniel Denoon.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
Tommaso Baldanzi drilled just wide from the edge of the area for Genoa early on, but it was Pisa who took the lead by taking advantage of the usual Grifone weakness on set plays.
Samuele Angori floated in a corner for the towering header of defender Simone Canestrelli into the far bottom corner, VAR waving away appeals for a push on Stefano Sabelli.
It should’ve been 2-0 moments later when Pisa broke on the counter-attack from a Genoa corner, but Angori failed to beat Justin Bijlow one-on-one.
Aaron Martin fired a promising free kick into the wall, but Genoa equalised from a throw-in. Baldanzi combined with Lorenzo Colombo and laid it off for Jeff Ekhator, who smashed a left-foot screamer into the roof of the net from just inside the area.
Genoa nearly turned it around on the stroke of half-time, as Colombo bent a great finish from a tricky angle down the right and it shaved a coat of paint off the far top corner of the crossbar. They were doubly frustrated, as officials did not spot the deflection off Canestrelli.
Colombo came close again after the restart, meeting the Baldanzi disguised pass to force a tricky save from Semper at the near post.
Canestrelli slipped when trying to block off Baldanzi in the box and stuck out an arm to parry the finish for an inevitable penalty. The Grifone had missed four of the previous eight spot-kicks in Serie A this season, but Colombo put a perfect left-foot finish into the top corner.
Leo Ostigard tripped Stefano Moreo just outside the box and Bijlow needed a big save to deny Michel Aebischer at the near post, while Semper got down to keep out the Colombo angled drive at the other end.
Pisa 1-2 Genoa
Canestrelli 19 (P), Ekhator 41 (G), Colombo pen 55 (G)
Player statistic
| Simone Canestrelli (Assist: Samuele Angori) |
19' | |||
| Arturo Calabresi | 32' | |||
| 41' |  |
Jeff Ekhator (Assist: Tommaso Baldanzi) |
| 55' |  |
Lorenzo Colombo | ||
| 67' | Leo Östigard | |||
| Michel Aebischer | 80' | |||
| Antonio Caracciolo |  |
87' |
