Serie A | Genoa 3-0 Cagliari: Colombo can’t stop scoring

Genoa surged up the standings with this confident victory over Cagliari, as Lorenzo Colombo, Morten Frendrup and Leo Ostigard secured a 3-0 result.

This was a relegation tussle with both teams coming off dramatic draws. The Grifone missed a last-gasp penalty when holding Milan, while the Sardinians came back from 2-0 down against Cremonese. The absentee list for the hosts included Albert Gronbaek, Caleb Ekuban, Junior Messias, Maxwel Cornet, Benjamin Siegrist and Jean Onana. The visitors missed Yerry Mina, Alessandro Deiola, Michael Folorunsho, Andrea Belotti and Mattia Felici.

It took under seven minutes to break the deadlock, as Lorenzo Colombo sprung the offside trap running onto the Ruslan Malinovskyi through ball from midfield and his angled drive saw him score for the third consecutive Serie A match.

Alessandro Marcandalli made a desperate interception to prevent Sebastiano Esposito tapping in the Marco Palestra cross from the right, while Leo Ostigard charged down a Michel Adopo effort inside the area.

Cagliari continued to pour forward, as Palestra’s ferocious volley from the edge of the area thumped the crossbar when Nicola Leali punched a free kick to the edge of the box.

A trademark long-range Malinovskyi screamer was fingertipped over by Elia Caprile, while Leali flew to palm a dangerous Esposito free kick out from under the bar.

Genoa had a huge chance to equalise at the dawn of the second half, but when Caprile parried the Colombo glancing header into the path of Ostigard, the defender couldn’t keep it down on the rebound.

Zito Luvumbo went clear one-on-one for Cagliari, but Leali kept his cool and rushed out to make the save.

Sebastiano Luperto struggled to deal with an Aaron Martin low cross, scrambling it clear before anyone could pounce on the loose ball.

Leali made another great save at full stretch to deny Idrissi’s snapshot from the edge of the area, before Gennaro Borrelli fouled his marker trying to get on the rebound.

Instead, Genoa doubled their lead when Morten Frendrup gathered a poor Luperto clearance and hit a scorcher from distance that left Caprile rooted to the spot with the aid of a big deflection off Matteo Prati.

Moments later, Ostigard confirmed his status as Genoa’s top scorer this season with an unorthodox glancing header on the Martin free kick, which effectively went in off his back.

It is Genoa’s first victory since December and puts them on level terms with Cagliari in the table.

Colombo 7 (G), Frendrup 75 (G), Ostigard 78 (G)