Genoa 1-1 Frosinone: Vasquez goal and a missed penalty end the Grifone's winless run

Genoa are still searching for their first win of the season, but at least the wait for a first point is over. A Johan Vasquez header midway through the second half cancelled out an early Giorgi Kvernadze goal for Frosinone, and the Grifone held on for a 1-1 draw at the Luigi Ferraris despite missing a penalty and finishing the game with ten men.

Kvernadze strikes early, Vasquez levels

Frosinone took the lead in the 14th minute when Kvernadze converted a Romano Schmid assist, continuing the visitors' bright start to the campaign. Genoa were awarded a penalty just before the break after Giorgio Cittadini's handball was flagged by VAR, but Lorenzo Colombo side-footed his effort wide in first-half stoppage time — a costly miss that would have put the hosts level going into the interval.

Genoa did not have to wait long into the second half to get their goal anyway. Vasquez rose to meet a Djibril Sow delivery in the 50th minute to make it 1-1, and for a spell it looked like the hosts might even find a winner. Instead, Vasquez himself was sent off in the 86th minute for a second yellow card after dragging back Seydou Fini, and Genoa had to see out the closing stages a man light. Tomas Bobcek almost punished them with a stoppage-time header, but Justin Bijlow produced a crucial save to preserve the point.

Match stats

Frosinone's 27 total shots to Genoa's 17 tell their own story about which side pressed harder for a winner, but it was the hosts who scored from theirs — a reminder that a game built on missed and made chances rarely rewards the team with the higher shot count alone.

Still winless, but no longer pointless

Genoa had lost all three of their opening matches — 0-2 at home to Napoli, 0-1 away at Lazio and 1-4 at home to Como — shipping seven goals along the way. This draw is their first point of the campaign and only their second goal scored, and while it does not lift them off the bottom of the table, it stops what had been a run of three straight defeats. Stephan El Shaarawy, back at Genoa after 16 years away from the club, was on the pitch to see it happen.

Frosinone arrived on the back of two straight wins — 3-0 away at Fiorentina and 3-2 at home to Venezia — after an opening-day loss to Juventus, and they leave Genoa with their unbeaten run in the league extended to two matches, even if the manner of it, missing the chance to make it three straight victories, will sting more than the header they conceded.

What's next

Guriball's Serie A table has Genoa bottom on nought points after three matches — now one point and one goal better off — while Frosinone sit 8th on six points, three wins and a draw away from the top four. Both sides return to league action after the international break, Genoa still hunting a first win and Frosinone looking to keep building on a start that has been far better than their table position from a year ago suggested it could be.