Tanner Tessmann, Gianluca Busio and Andrija Novakovich all got in on the action on Monday night as Venezia nearly held on for a draw at third-place Genoa, but were done in by a late lapse in the defense.
Genoa 1 – 0 Venezia
Tessmann and Busio both started for the visitors, lining up along side each other in the heart of head coach Paolo Vanoli’s midfield.
Busio had one of his better games of the season, albeit without reward, managing one shot, creating three chances, completing 84% of his 50 passes, winning two tackles and five of his eight duels before leaving the game in the 92nd minute.
Tessmann took on a more holding/disruptor role in the middle, with 46 touches, 25 completed passes in 34 attempts, five recoveries, a pair of clearances and one block. He did pick up his fourth yellow of the season in the 80th minute, putting him one away from suspension.
Venezia needed until well after the half-hour mark to find their footing and mount any real attack. In the 36th minute, Busio slid a pass from the left of the area to Domen Crnigoj, whose low shot was barely wide of the left post.
Shortly after, the Slovenian international saw a powerful shot strike the crossbar, in Venezia’s closest call of the game, then Busio’s shot just before the break was over the mark.
The hosts thought they found their winner in the 65th minute. A Genoa attempt from the right side of the six-yard box was deflected on its way to goal, but took a lucky bounce to land in front of Aramu who threaded the needle with a shot to the lower right corner. However, the score was nullified for an offside infraction.
Vanoli brought Novakovich into the game in the 82nd minute as attacking reinforcement, however the American’s impact was limited, with only six touches over the final nine minutes of regulation and several additional minutes of added time.
Genoa were finally successful with the game-winner with five minutes left, after Güven Yalcin headed a diagonal pass back towards the left post, and Massimo Coda made no mistake with his short strike.
With the loss, Venezia sink deeper into the hole, and are now in the automatic relegation places, with 20 points from 20 games. They next face a tough home game against surprising promoted team Südtirol on Saturday.
