Genoa 3-2 Lazio: Palacio and Jankovic brace earn superb home victory for Pasquale Marino's men

Genoa continued their resurgence under Pasquale Marino with a 3-2 victory over Lazio, in their Serie A encounter at Stadio Luigi Ferraris on Sunday afternoon.

Argentine hitman Palacio has netted six goals in his last four games, and the Lazio defence started hesitantly, whilst Palacio and Alberto Gilardino linked up smartly from the offset. The Italian international is enjoying a new lease of life having added a new facet to his game, assisting three goals in recent matches.

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Both sides felt the wintery conditions but Genoa looked bright as coach Pasquale Marino encouraged his side to play positively. Davide Biondini won a corner and Palacio looped a flick over Federico Marchetti in the 10th minute to open the scoring.

Lazio looked weary as the first half progressed, with the Grifoni convincingly dominating proceedings.

As the first half wore on, Miroslav Klose and Candreva linked up nicely as the latter’s influence began to grow, but just as Lazio began to exert some authority on the match, Jankovic coolly slotted home from an acute angle, following a catalogue of errors from Marchetti and his defenders, to double the lead.

Genoa were passing the ball around nicely and enjoying the match, whilst Lazio continued to toil. German veteran Klose looked disgruntled with the lack of service, ploughing the line as a lone frontman.

Genoa were relatively untroubled until the 40th minute when Sebastien Frey made a smart stop from Klose’s header. Lazio had three corners in succession as the German tried to rally his team-mates, but to no avail.

The first half closed with strike pairing Palacio and Gilardino combining nicely with the latter being kept out by an observant Marchetti.

As the second half kicked off, Lazio got off to the worst start, conceding within 10 seconds as Jankovic found the tightest of angles superbly following Javier Garrido’s questionable defending.

Lazio did however pull a goal back as Giandomenico Mesto pulled down Selad Lulic in the penalty area. The resulting spot-kick was taken by Ledesma who cooly converted past Sebastien Frey.

The second half was host to a more competitive battle as Lazio took risks to gain a stranglehold in the game, and Mobido Diakite was sent off with 10 minutes to go for speaking back to the referee.

Gonzalez provided the finish for Lazio in the final moments following fine link up play from Ledesma and Klose, but the Grifoni held on securing a fourth straight home win whilst Edy Reja’s Lazio remain short of the European places.