Giovanni Simeone’s early tap-in at full stretch proved enough to give Verona victory, as Genoa suffer their first defeat under coach Alexander Blessin.
Hellas had just two points in the last three rounds, whereas Genoa were unbeaten under Blessin, fresh from seven consecutive stalemates and the 1-0 win over Torino. Antonin Barak, Kevin Lasagna, Gianluca Frabotta and Pawel Dawidowicz were out of action, while the visitors had Leo Ostigard suspended, Zinho Vanheusden, Mattia Bani, Andrea Cambiaso and Nicolò Rovella injured.
It took just five minutes to break the deadlock, Giovanni Simeone running onto a Daniel Bessa through ball and getting his toe to prod it past Salvatore Sirigu just before Johan Vasquez.
Manolo Portanova forced a one-handed save from Lorenzo Montipò, while Gianluca Caprari was unlucky not to make it 2-0 when his right-foot curler from just inside the box was fingertipped onto the far post.
Caprari also found the side-netting from a tight angle, then floated a cross onto the head of Simeone that went over the bar.
Genoa had a huge opportunity to equalise on 68 minutes, a deflected Kelvin Yeboah assist finding Roberto Piccoli from six yards, but Darko Lazovic got back for the decisive block.
Martin Hongla stung Sirigu’s gloves from the edge of the box and Koray Gunter made a perfect tackle to stop Nadiem Amiri on the counter.
Verona 1-0 Genoa
Simeone 5 (V)