Genoa forward Lorenzo Colombo missed the first penalty of the 2026-27 Serie A season against Frosinone, squandering a chance that could have altered the trajectory of a deeply troubled campaign for the Grifone.
The miss matters beyond the moment itself. Genoa sit 19th in Serie A with a single point from four matches — one draw, three defeats, two goals scored and eight conceded. Daniele De Rossi's side are running out of room to absorb individual errors, and a penalty is the closest thing football offers to a guaranteed return. When the man trusted to take it fails to convert, it sharpens every question already circling the attack.
Colombo, 24, has contributed one assist across four Serie A appearances this season, with an average match rating of 6.26 — numbers that reflect a player present but not yet decisive. His Coppa Italia record offers a slightly different picture: one goal in two matches in that competition, though those figures were not produced in Serie A and should be read in that context. The underlying profile — an AI overall of 72 out of 100, with a potential of 78 — suggests a player whose ceiling remains meaningfully above his current output, but potential is only useful when converted into results, and right now Genoa need results urgently.
The Coppa Italia provided a narrow escape rather than a confidence boost. Johan Vasquez's late header against Sudtirol kept De Rossi's men in the competition, but the difficulty of that passage against lower-division opposition underlines how fragile the collective confidence is. Colombo's penalty miss against Frosinone now sits in that same frame: a team that cannot afford waste, served by a forward who has not yet found the consistency to eliminate it.
With Parma among the fixtures De Rossi's squad must now address, Colombo needs a performance that shifts the conversation from what he missed to what he delivered.