Messias double act sends Genoa above Lecce in survival fight
Junior Messias scored one and created another as Genoa beat Lecce 1-2 at Via del Mare to claim a third straight win and climb clear of the relegation zone.
Genoa beat Lecce 1-2 at Stadio Via del Mare on Saturday, with Junior Messias scoring one goal and setting up another to extend the club's winning run to three matches, Football Italia reported.
The result matters because both sides sit in the lower half of Serie A, and Genoa's victory arrives on the back of a 2-0 win over Juventus in midweek. Lecce, by contrast, had lost four of their previous five league games, including a 5-1 defeat to Frosinone, before kicking off against Daniele De Rossi's side.
Messias turns provider then scorer on Genoa's right
Genoa's opening goal, after 11 minutes, came from a pattern that would recur all afternoon. Messias collected possession out wide and pulled the ball back from the byline into the path of Milutin Osmajic, who turned in a first-time finish from nine yards. Minutes later the same move nearly doubled the lead, with Stephan El Shaarawy unmarked but turning wide of the far post from another Messias cutback.
The second goal, on 28 minutes, showed a different side of Messias's game. Hamed Junior Traoré slid a pass through for El Shaarawy to knock on first time, releasing Messias into the inside-right half-space. His first touch took him past Wladimiro Falcone, and he finished from the tightest of angles before Tiago Gabriel's goal-line clearance could arrive in time.
Genoa's pattern was consistent: width on the right, quick combination play through the half-space, and a cutback or layoff into the six-yard area. Lecce's back line struggled to track the runners arriving late into that zone, and the same side of the pitch produced the chance that hit the post when El Shaarawy's curling effort bent around Falcone.
Lecce's makeshift side could not contain the right flank
Lecce were already short-handed before kickoff. Willem Geubbels was ruled out after an injury sustained in the warm-up for the Frosinone defeat, and Lassana Coulibaly, Medon Berisha, Santiago Pierotti and Ivan Ilic were all absent, with Kialonda Gaspar suspended. That left a squad thinner in midfield cover, which showed in the space Genoa found between the lines on the right side of Lecce's defence.
Lecce still responded before half-time. Youssef Maleh's free kick deflected heavily off Osmajic in the defensive wall, wrong-footing Justin Bijlow and pulling the score back to 2-1 by the 40th minute. That set piece, scored by accident as much as design, sparked a spell of Lecce pressure that produced a goal from Nikola Stulic shortly after, though it was ruled out for a handball in the build-up after Antonino Gallo's cross was bundled over the line.
Bijlow was required again to deny Gallo with a strong save under his crossbar, and Lecce's best openings after the break came through Oumar Ngom, whose deflected effort forced another save, with Paco Esteban unable to turn in the rebound. Joel Monteiro, Lecce's most direct outlet, picked up a calf injury while squirming away from a challenge near the byline, reducing their attacking options further as the game went on.
Genoa's form and De Rossi's selection paying off
Genoa's own squad had been disrupted too, with Cody Drameh, Elias Havel and Lorenzo Venturino left out, while Mikael Ellertsson recovered from an ankle issue in time to start. De Rossi's side nonetheless managed the transition moments well, breaking at pace through Messias and El Shaarawy whenever Lecce committed numbers forward in search of an equaliser.
Vitinha was played through by another Messias assist but slipped at the decisive moment, and Amar Fatah's appeal for a penalty was waved away, meaning the scoreline stayed at 2-1 despite several late Lecce pushes. The win moves Genoa to a third straight victory in all competitions, a run that began before the Juventus result and has now carried into a direct rival for points at the bottom of the table.
For Lecce, the defeat continues a difficult stretch that has brought four losses in five league matches, and the absences in midfield and defence will need addressing before their next fixture if they are to stop conceding so freely down the flanks that Genoa exploited through Messias and El Shaarawy.