Parma 2-1 Genoa: Romero and Almqvist end a four-game winless run at the Tardini

Both sides had gone without a win in their opening four Serie A matches. Only one of those streaks survived the afternoon at the Tardini. Jerry Romero put Parma ahead in the 38th minute, Mërgim Osmajic levelled it for Genoa in the 70th, and Pontus Almqvist restored the lead ten minutes later to send Parma to their first win of the season.

Two sides that needed this

Neither team arrived in form. Parma had drawn one and lost three of their previous four league games; Genoa had lost three of theirs and drawn the other, against Frosinone. That made this as close to a straight relegation-zone fight as matchday 5 produced — and it is Parma who move out of the bottom three, while Genoa stay there with one point from five games.

Parma's road to a first win

It took five attempts. Alberto Gilardino's side opened the season with a 0-1 home defeat to Cagliari, beaten by an Alessandro Romano strike from distance after Cagliari had already hit the woodwork three times. A trip to the Allianz Stadium produced a similar story: goalless for an hour, then two Juventus substitutes, Nico Gonzalez and Teun Koopmeiners, scored either side of the 90th minute to make it 2-0. Parma finally got off the mark on matchday 3, a 1-1 draw at home to Monza in which substitute Simone Lontani scored on his Serie A debut to cancel out an early Jay Robinson goal. A fourth game without a win followed at Como, lost 2-1 despite a stoppage-time reply from the bench, before this win over Genoa turned four winless rounds — one draw, three defeats — into Parma's first three points of the season.

Genoa's leaky start continues

Genoa's five rounds read worse. Daniele De Rossi's side opened with a 0-2 home defeat to Napoli, undone by a late Kevin De Bruyne cameo, then lost 0-1 at Lazio to a 25th-minute Davide Frattesi goal despite having 54% of the possession. The heaviest defeat came next: 1-4 at home to Como, Milutin Osmajic's early opener wiped out by three goals in sixteen minutes either side of half-time and a second Assane Diao goal after the break. Genoa's only result that was not a defeat came on matchday 4, a 1-1 draw with Frosinone in which Lorenzo Colombo missed a first-half penalty and Johan Vasquez was sent off late for a second booking. Osmajic's 70th-minute leveller here was not enough to add a second point of the season, leaving Genoa with the Frosinone draw as their only non-defeat from five matches and Serie A's bottom position to show for it.

Line-ups

Where the table stands

Where the two attacks and defences sit league-wide

Genoa's attack is the joint-worst in Serie A: their three goals in five games match only Bologna's tally, with every other club in the division on four or more. Their defence is the second-leakiest, too — only bottom club Venezia have conceded more than Genoa's ten, and Genoa's -7 goal difference trails just Venezia's -9 across all twenty teams. Parma sit in noticeably better shape by comparison: their four goals scored are level with Venezia for the third-fewest in the league, but their seven conceded put them in the middle of a crowded group rather than at the bottom of it, which is the difference between escaping the relegation zone and sitting in it after five rounds.

What's next

Parma go into the international break with something to build on for the first time this season. Genoa, still searching for a first win, will use the pause to try to fix a defence that has now conceded ten goals in five games — the joint-worst return in the division alongside their attack.