GENOA

League position: 13th
Head coach: Davide Ballardini
Serie A top-scorer: Mattia Destro (9)

RECENT FORM

Roma: W D W L W
Genoa: W D D L D

Roma bounced back from a first home defeat in Serie A at the hands of AC Milan last Sunday with a 2-1 win at Fiorentina in midweek that kept the Giallorossi firmy in the hunt for a top-four spot.

Only league leaders Inter Milan (31) have claimed more home points than Paulo Fonseca’s side (30), who have not lost two consecutive home matches in the top-flight since January 2020.

As for Genoa, they have been one of Italy’s most in-form sides since the turn of the year and have lost just one of their previous nine matches (W4, D4, L1); a sequence that has taken them from second bottom to within touching distance of the top half.

Despite stretching their current run to four games without a win in a 1-1 Derby della Lanterna draw in the week, the Grifone have thrived with Ballardini in charge and have kept clean sheets in three of their last four on the road in the league - as many as they managed across their previous 21 away days.

LAST MEETING

DANGER MAN
Mattia Destro

The former Roma striker has found a new lease of life since Ballardini arrived at the club in December, scoring six times in his 10 appearances under the 57-year-old coach’s 12-game Serie A tenure so far.

Destro has, however, gone four games without a league goal and hasn’t found the back of the net in six outings against his former employers from the capital.

That is not to say the 29-year-old won’t be a threat, though, and the Italy international’s pace will pose a particular threat to the Giallorossi defence.

He has tended to operate with Marko Pjaca in support but both Eldor Shomurodov and the evergreen Goran Pandev are alternatives just as keen to supply Genoa’s No.23, who has contributed a third of their Serie A goals this season.

MATCH STATS

Roma are unbeaten in their last 13 top-flight meetings with Genoa (W10, D3), which is the Giallorossi’s longest current unbeaten run against any team in the division.

Last season’s draw at the Olimpico ended Roma’s run of 13 successive home wins over Genoa, and the last time they went two matches without beating the Rossoblu on home soil was back in 1948.

Fonseca’s Roma have played Genoa three times in Serie A and have scored three goals in all three of those games.

Genoa’s most recent victory at the Olimpico came courtesy of a 1-0 win in 1990 against a Roma team that featured the likes of Thomas Berthold, Bruno Conti and Rudi Voller.

PLAYER STATS

• Stephan El Shaarawy made his Serie A debut for Genoa, and has since scored four times against his old club.
  
• Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s hat-trick in the reverse fixture was his first Giallorossi treble and the Armenia international is one goal away from hitting double figures in the league for the first time since 2015-16 while at Borussia Dortmund.
  
• Destro played 57 times and scored 24 goals for Roma in Serie A across two and a half seasons in yellow and red from 2012-13 to 2014-15.
  
• Kevin Strootman and Davide Zappacosta were also previously with Roma, as were Luca Pellegrini and Gianluca Scamacca - who came through the club’s academy ranks during the same period.

WHAT THEY SAID

“We played a good match against a strong team. For me, of the two, Genoa were the team that deserved something more given how we played. It’s a good performance, a point and we look forward to the next few matches.”

- Genoa coach Ballardini after his side's Derby della Lanterna draw