AC Milan left Marassi with three points from a 1-2 victory over Genoa, and the margin was settled by a goal from an unlikely source: AC Milan midfielder Zachary Athekame, who converted a Christian Pulišić assist in the 81st minute to restore the lead Massimiliano Allegri's side had surrendered four minutes earlier.

The match turned on a concentrated stretch of second-half action. Justin Bijlow, Genoa's goalkeeper, collected a yellow card in the 48th minute — the nature of the infringement unspecified in the record — and two minutes later AC Milan had their opener. Christopher Nkunku stepped up and converted a penalty in the 50th minute, giving the visitors a lead that, given Genoa's form coming in, felt precarious rather than comfortable. Allegri's side had lost two of their last three matches, conceding six goals across those three fixtures, and their defensive record offered Daniele De Rossi's hosts reason for optimism.

The 63rd minute brought a cluster of yellow cards — Matteo Gabbia for Milan, Genoa midfielder Vítinha for the home side — and the temperature of the match rose accordingly. Allegri responded with a double substitution at 68 minutes, withdrawing Youssouf Fofana and Santiago Giménez and introducing Samuele Ricci and Niclas Fullkrug. The shape of the game shifted. Fikayo Tomori then picked up a yellow card in the 72nd minute and was removed from the field four minutes later, with Koni De Winter coming on; Pulišić replaced Nkunku in the same window of changes.

Pulišić's introduction proved immediately consequential. In the 81st minute, Athekame converted the assist from the American winger to make it 2-0 — a goal that looked, at that point, like a comfortable cushion. Genoa defender Johan Vásquez pulled one back in the 86th minute to set up a nervous finish, but De Rossi's side could not find a second, and Milan held on.

The decisive figure was Athekame. The Milan midfielder had not been among the obvious candidates for match-winner — Nkunku had taken the penalty and been substituted, Giménez had been withdrawn before the hour — but Athekame's goal in the 81st minute, assisted by Pulišić within five minutes of the latter's introduction, was the act that separated the sides. It is worth noting that Ricci, introduced at 68 minutes, collected a yellow card in the 86th minute, suggesting Milan's late phase was not without its own disorder.

For Genoa, the afternoon encapsulated a difficult recent run. De Rossi's side have taken two points from their last three matches, scoring once and conceding twice in that window. The home team's attacking output has been thin — Lorenzo Colombo was substituted in the 85th minute without having scored, and the only goal came from Vásquez at centre-back, too late to alter the result. Genoa's midfield, fielding Ruslan Malinovskyi and Tommaso Baldanzi before the latter was replaced in the 64th minute, could not generate the pressure needed to unsettle a Milan backline that, despite its own yellow-card accumulation, managed the closing stages.

The form picture for both sides is instructive without being flattering. Milan's seven points from their last five matches represent a functional rather than convincing return, and their three goals conceded in the last three games alone suggest Allegri's defensive structure remains a work in progress. Genoa's five points from five matches, with only three goals scored across that span, point to a team short of attacking momentum. The win does nothing to disguise Milan's inconsistency, but it does interrupt a sequence in which they had lost two consecutive matches — against Sassuolo away and Atalanta at home — and a third defeat would have made the recent run considerably harder to contextualise.

A month from now, this match will be remembered as the afternoon Athekame, not the more celebrated names around him, decided a fixture that neither side fully controlled.