Lecce take on the visitors Genoa in the round 5 match of Italian Serie A. The match will be played on Friday, September 22nd at Stadio Via del Mare (Lecce).
The Giallorossi occasionally make their way into Serie A and play attractive football there. However, the results in terms of points haven't always been sufficient to stay at the highest level of Italian football. So, the Wolves can certainly contribute positively to the past season: the newcomers managed to accumulate 36 points in 38 matches, which, although not a lot, was 5 more than Spezia and Verona, comfortably finishing in 16th place. However, this achievement was under the management of Marco Baroni, who left the project in the summer. They brought in d'Aversa, a coach who performed well at Parma but then had an unsuccessful return there and struggled with Sampdoria last season. But now, the coach and his team are doing well. In the new season of the Italian championship, this modest team managed to defeat Como in the cup and began Serie A with an unexpected victory over Lazio. This was followed by 2-2 against Fiorentina and a 2-0 win at home against Salernitana. After the break for national team matches, they drew 1-1 with Monza, adding another point to their tally.
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Genoa spent the previous season in Serie B. The Grifoni are 9-time champions of the country. However, it's essential to remember that the next year marks an unpleasant anniversary: exactly a century since the last Scudetto. Over the years, there was only the victory in the Italian Cup (and that was back in 1937) and a semi-final appearance in the UEFA Cup in the early '90s. There were some decent periods later on, and when American investors arrived, fans expected a new breakthrough. Changes did happen, but not quite as anticipated. The club from Genoa, despite fairly active acquisitions of newcomers and a change in the coach (including Shevchenko's unsuccessful stint), faced relegation in 2022. Furthermore, things didn't go smoothly in Serie B either, which led to the appointment of Gattuso, a local legend as a player. Alberto, who was initially seen as an interim solution, performed excellently, lifting his team to the final 2nd place - enough to return directly to Serie A. Interestingly, the team is now gaining points where least expected. After suffering a heavy defeat at home against Fiorentina and a painful loss to Torino with the only goal in the 94th minute, Genoa defeated Lazio and secured a 2-2 draw against Napoli. The star newcomer, Retegi, who earned the right to represent the Italian national team with his performances at Tigre, scored against both giants.
The last time Lecce won was back in September 2006. In the last four head-to-head matches, Genoa had 3 wins, with only one draw. The hosts will be the favorites in this match. However, the visitors have started reasonably well, so let's go with the option of total over 2.0 goals.
Prediction for the match: Total over 2.0 scored goals.
