Genoa hosted Ascoli in the Coppa Italia at the Ferraris on 16 August, and the final scoreline of 4-1 tells only part of the story. The more instructive number is three: the three minutes between the 42nd and 45th in which Daniele De Rossi's side erased a deficit and seized control of a match they had spent the first half chasing.
Ascoli's opener, converted by an unidentified player in the 25th minute, left Genoa trailing and offered a glimpse of the discomfort that had defined their recent form. The response, when it came, was swift and decisive. Genoa defender Alessandro Marcandalli levelled in the 42nd minute from a Mario Mitaj assist, and before Ascoli could regroup, Genoa midfielder Tommaso Baldanzi put the hosts ahead in the 45th minute, assisted by Brooke Norton-Cuffy. Two goals in three first-half minutes, and the match's centre of gravity had shifted entirely.
The second half belonged to Genoa's depth. Lorenzo Colombo, the Genoa forward, extended the lead to 3-1 in the 61st minute with Morten Frendrup providing the assist — a combination that underlined the midfield's capacity to supply the attack even after the halftime substitutions had reshaped the lineup. Colombo was withdrawn five minutes later, replaced by Elias Havel, and it was Havel who completed the scoring in the 80th minute, finishing from a Samuel Wiafe assist. That Genoa's fourth goal came from two players who had entered as substitutes speaks to the squad's functional breadth on the day.
Havel's goal is the one that produced the final margin, but the more analytically interesting contribution belongs to Baldanzi. The Genoa midfielder's lead-taking goal in the 45th minute arrived at the precise moment when Ascoli might have held the score to 1-1 at the break and reset their approach. Instead, Baldanzi — assisted by Norton-Cuffy, who was operating in a midfield role — ensured Genoa carried a one-goal advantage into the interval. That goal changed the psychological and tactical arithmetic of the second half entirely.
Ascoli, managed by Francesco Tomei, offered little after falling behind. Their substitutions — five in total, with several involving unidentified players in the data — suggest Tomei was cycling through his squad rather than chasing the game with any conviction. The visitors created no further scoring threat after the 25th minute, and their lone yellow card, issued to an unidentified player in the 85th minute, came in a match that had long since been decided. The structural problem for Ascoli was the three-minute collapse before halftime: conceding twice in that window, after having led, is the kind of momentum shift that a team of their resources cannot absorb.
Genoa's form context makes this result both necessary and slightly complicated to read. Across their last five matches — which includes four Serie A fixtures and this Coppa Italia tie — De Rossi's side have collected five points from a possible fifteen, with two wins absent from that window. The last three matches tell a sharper story: one win, two losses, three points. This Coppa Italia victory is the sole win in that compressed run, and while cup competition offers a different kind of pressure than league football, the manner of the comeback — clinical, quick, and sustained across the second half — is the kind of performance De Rossi will want to carry into the Serie A calendar. Whether the personnel who delivered it, including Baldanzi and Havel, can replicate it in higher-stakes environments is the question the form data raises without answering.
Genoa came from behind, scored four, and rotated productively — in a summer cup fixture, that is the baseline expectation. The real measure of this afternoon is whether the three minutes that changed the match represent a team finding its competitive identity, or simply a favorable opponent arriving at the right moment.