Como won 2-0 at the Marassi on Sunday, and the margin was built on a structural imbalance that Cesc Fàbregas's side identified early and exploited across two separate passages of the match — a tenth-minute opener that set the tone before Genoa could organise, and a second goal in the 68th minute that arrived just as Daniele De Rossi's substitutions were attempting to shift the game's shape.
The first goal, scored at the ten-minute mark, came before Genoa had settled into any defensive rhythm. The timing matters: a side that had conceded eight goals across their last five matches was already showing the kind of structural looseness that early pressure punishes. Como's Nico Paz, the Argentine midfielder operating in the half-spaces, was central to the visitors' build-up, and the goal arrived through a combination of direct vertical movement and Genoa's failure to hold their defensive line. The second, in the 68th minute, came after De Rossi had made two double substitutions — one at half-time, one at the 57th minute — in an attempt to change the dynamic. The fact that Como scored shortly after those changes absorbed Genoa's momentum rather than disrupted Como's is the clearest evidence of where the tactical contest was decided.
Como midfielder Máximo Perrone was the visitor who most consistently controlled the tempo. The Argentine, operating alongside Martin Baturina in Como's midfield, dictated the pace of transitions and screened the back line effectively enough that Genoa's forward players — Mikael Ellertsson and Jeff Ekhator among them — rarely received the ball in positions from which they could threaten. What the event log does not capture is how Perrone's positioning repeatedly compressed Genoa's central corridors, forcing the home side wide into areas where Como's defensive shape, anchored by Diego Carlos, was already set. Perrone did not score or assist, but the match's shape was largely his construction.
Genoa's problems were not solely tactical. De Rossi's side had won two of their last three matches — collecting six points against Pisa away and Sassuolo at home — which created a misleading sense of momentum heading into this fixture. The underlying fragility was visible in the goals-against column: four conceded in those same three matches, and eight across the last five. Against a Como side that had scored eleven goals in their last five, the defensive exposure was always the primary risk. Justin Bijlow, the Genoa goalkeeper, was not at fault for either goal in any way the data allows us to specify, but the back line in front of him — with Leo Østigård and Johan Vásquez as the central pairing — never established the kind of compactness that would have made Como work harder for their openings. The single yellow card Genoa collected, compared to Como's three, suggests the home side were not even aggressive enough in disrupting the visitors' rhythm.
The result moves Como further clear of any mid-table anxiety. They have taken seven points from their last five matches, and a road win at a ground where they had not previously won in this head-to-head series — the H2H record now shows one Como win and one draw from two meetings — confirms that Fàbregas's project is accumulating the kind of away-day resilience that separates sides with genuine ambition from those merely managing their position. For Genoa, the defeat keeps them in a precarious cycle: the wins against Pisa and Sassuolo now look like results against sides in similar difficulty rather than evidence of a genuine upward shift. With eight goals conceded in five matches, the defensive numbers do not support optimism about what comes next.
A month from now, this match will be remembered as the afternoon Como demonstrated that their 5-0 win against Pisa in March was not an outlier — they can win ugly on the road just as convincingly as they win expansively at home.