Gianluca Scamacca scored twice on his return to Marassi, but Genoa completed another comeback from 2-0 down to hold Sassuolo 2-2 with debutant Johan Vasquez.
Both sides had started the season quite badly and Davide Ballardini was already dealing with sack rumours. Domenico Criscito shook off an injury, with Felipe Caicedo finally available on the bench, but Zinho Vanheusden, Nikola Maksimovic and Mattia Bani were sidelined. The Neroverdi missed Jeremie Boga, Hamed Traore, Kaan Ayhan, Pedro Obiang and Filippo Romagna.
Gianluca Scamacca hit the back of the net against his old club after 10 minutes when running clear on goal, but it was disallowed for his push on Johan Vasquez.
Scamacca, who spent last season on loan at Genoa, did get his goal eventually, running onto Domenico Berardi’s through ball and making the most of a lucky ricochet off Vasquez to beat Salvatore Sirigu one-on-one.
Moments later, the Italy Under-21 international was on target again, Jeremy Toljan bursting down the right and rolling across for Scamacca to tap in at the back post, although Domenico Criscito’s attempt to intercept unintentionally took it away from his fellow defenders.
Genoa pulled one back, as Mattia Destro showed remarkable accuracy to steer the Mohamed Fares cross back across the face of goal into the far bottom corner.
Destro thought he’d equalised on 34 minutes with a very similar move, but this was disallowed for an offside position, while Andrea Consigli made a decisive save on Goran Pandev.
Filip Djuricic came so close to 3-1 before half-time, but Sirigu fingertipped his strike onto the upright.
Scamacca somehow turned over from a couple of yards as Toljan rolled across and in the process Davide Biraschi accidentally crashed into the upright, forcing him to go off in agony with bruised ribs.
Davide Frattesi skimmed the woodwork, while at the other end Caleb Ekuban’s scorcher was parried by Consigli, Pandev and Fares unable to make the most of the rebound.
Georgios Kyriakopoulos had the ball in the net, but was clearly offside for Sassuolo.
Genoa have shown again and again this season they do not give in and completed another comeback from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with Johan Vasquez’s glancing header on a Rovella corner.
Genoa 2-2 Sassuolo
Scamacca 17, 21 (S), Destro 27 (G), Vasquez 89 (G)