Serie A | Genoa 0-3 Juventus: Vlahovic brace breaks drought at last

Dusan Vlahovic ended the Juventus drought after more than five hours, as his brace and Francisco Conceicao late on added to Genoa’s woes in an empty Marassi.

This game was played behind closed doors after violent clashes between Genoa and Sampdoria fans in the midweek Coppa Italia clash, which saw the Grifone eliminated on penalties. VAR technology was available despite a small fire in the booth a few hours beforehand.

The Bianconeri were frustrated after three consecutive 0-0 draws, but lost Tim Weah and Arkadiusz Milik to injury, giving Danilo and 20-year-old Jonas Rouhi their first starts of the season. Ruslan Malinovskyi is out for the campaign after the horrific ankle fracture, joining Junior Messias, Brooke Norton-Cuffy and Caleb Ekuban on the treatment table, so 16-year-old Honest Ahanor received his senior debut.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Fabio Miretti faced his parent club and his free kick hit the wall, while Ahanor almost surprised Danilo when sneaking up behind him on a cross.

There was another blow for Genoa when captain Milan Badelj hobbled off with a left thigh injury after just 25 minutes.

Morten Frendrup was booked for catching Nico Gonzalez studs-up on the ankle, but it was not a red card because he had connected with the ball first.

Dusan Vlahovic’s free kick curled over the bar and nobody was ready for the Kenan Yildiz pull-back from the by-line.

The first real Juventus chance was on the stroke of half-time, a deflected Nico Gonzalez cross stinging Pierluigi Gollini’s gloves at the near post.

Straight after the restart, Koni De Winter clumsily handled in the box on a Yildiz flick and Vlahovic converted the penalty by blasting into the top corner with his left foot after a stuttering run-up. It was their first goal in over five hours of Serie A football.

It was almost 2-0 moments later, as Koopmeiners pulled it back across the six-yard box, but Ahanor made a crucial interception to prevent the Nico Gonzalez tap-in.

Vlahovic did get Juve’s second when running on to the Koopmeiners through ball, shrugging off Mattia Bani and blasting a left-foot angled drive into the far bottom corner.

Francisco Conceicao made his comeback from injury and provided an assist on a silver platter that Koopmeiners incredibly prodded against the underside of the crossbar from close range.

Vlahovic also wasted with a wayward header on the pull-back from close range, with Genoa threatening only late on as the Bohinen effort was deflected over.

Mattia Perin had to make a genuine flying save on Andrea Pinamonti, who swung the boot on an Alan Matturro pull-back from the left.

However, Juventus added a third goal moments later when Khephren Thuram’s pass was allowed through by a smart Koopmeiners dummy, allowing Francisco Conceicao to fire in from just inside the penalty area.