Genoa vs Torino Preview: Team News & Prediction
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Genoa have started the Patrick Vieira era with four points from two matches as they try and push away from the bottom three and the relegation places. They now take on a Torino side suffering a steep decline after a strong start to the campaign.
Kick-off date/time: Saturday 7th December, 2024: UK – 2:00pm / US ET – 9:00am / US PT – 6:00am
How to watch on TV: UK – Not televised / US – Select matches will be televised on CBS Sports so it is worth checking their schedule
How to watch online: UK – OneFootball / US – Paramount+
Genoa Preview: Unusual business
777 Partners have lots of financial issues off the pitch and that prevented their takeover of Everton and also promoted the sale of key players at Genoa this summer, such as Albert Gudmundsson and Mateo Retegui. With all the off-field issues, it was quite impressive work from Alberto Gilardino to have them outside of the bottom three and the relegation places.
However, the owners took the decision to sack Gilardino and replace him with Patrick Vieira late in the November international break. There are concerns about Vieira’s managerial capabilities but they shared a 2-2 draw with fellow strugglers Cagliari in his opening match before an impressive 2-0 win in Friuli against Udinese at the weekend.
Torino Preview: Sliding down
After finishing in the top-half but with a very frustrating style of football that produced just 72 goals in 38 games last season, Torino and manager Ivan Juric parted company. He was replaced by Paolo Vanoli, a disciple of Antonio Conte, who had just guided Venezia to promotion from Serie B last season.
Vanoli’s reign began well as they challenged towards the top end of the table but the Piedmont-based club have endured a miserable couple of months and that continued last weekend as they suffered a 1-0 loss to league leaders Napoli meaning they have now won just one of their last ten matches across all competitions.
Genoa Team News: Johan Vasquez suspension
Genoa have had attacking issues this season with those aforementioned sales and a few injuries, most notably to Ruslan Malinovskiy, who suffered a bad ankle break.
As well as the absence of Malinovskiy, Mexico international defender Johan Vasquez is missing through suspension with both Koni De Winter and Caleb Ekuban also out injured.
Predicted XI (4-1-4-1): Leali; Sabelli, Bani, Marcandalli, Caricol; Badelj; Zanoli, Thorsby, Frendrup, Miretti; Pinamonti
Unavailable: De Winter (Injured), Johan Vasquez (Suspended), Malinovskiy (Injured), Ekuban (Injured)
Questionable: Ekhator (Injured)
Torino Team News: No Duvan Zapata
The good form that Torino showed at the start of this season was a strong partnership built between summer signing Che Adams and Colombia international Duvan Zapata.
However, Duvan Zapata is now sidelined with an ACL injury with Ivan Ilic missing due to a hamstring issue as Perr Schuurs still tries to fight back from an ACL injury.
Predicted XI (3-5-2): Milinkovic-Savic; Walukiewicz, Saul Coco, Masina; Pedersen, Ricci, Linetty, Gineitis, Vojvoda; Adams, Tonny Sanabria
Unavailable: Schuurs (Injured), Ilic (Injured), Duvan Zapata (Injured)
Questionable:
Genoa vs Torino Prediction
Genoa have, despite their attacking issues, been relatively entertaining to watch and that is expected to continue with Vieira at the helm. Results remain in the balance for Vieira but it is the so-called ‘new manager bounce’ section of his reign. Vanoli is now coming under mounting pressure in charge of Torino and the last thing they’d want is to go to a Genoa side that will, finally, be feeling a little bit of confidence in the ranks.
Genoa vs Torino Tip: Double chance – Genoa to win or draw
