Serie A | Genoa 1-0 Venezia: Ellertsson breaks his old club

ITALY - OCTOBER 25: Mikael Ellertsson of Genoa (5th from left) celebrates with his team-mates after scoring a goal during the Serie A match between Genoa CFC and Venezia FC at Stadio Luigi Ferraris on October 25, 2026 in Italy. (Photo by Simone Arveda/Getty Images)

Genoa earned a potentially decisive victory in this relegation tussle with Venezia thanks to a Mikael Ellertsson screamer against his former club.

This was a pure relegation dogfight at Marassi. The Grifone seemed to turn a corner with their 2-1 win over Fiorentina before the 2-0 loss at Roma. Kingsley Ehizibue, Djibril Sow and Lorenzo Venturino missed out, with Lorenzo Colombo and Amorim not at 100 per cent, so Mario Mitaj got his Serie A debut.

Davide Nicola made the perfect start on the Lagunari bench, beating Napoli 1-0 for the team’s first points of the season. Thierry Correia, Andrea Adorante, Marin Sverko and Bartol Franjic were still injured.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

The hosts took the early initiative, a Leo Ostigard header easy for Filip Stankovic and Junior Messias drilling wide from the edge of the area.

However, Venezia were dangerous on the counter-attack, Justin Bijlow making a tough save on John Yeboah after combining with Akor Adams.

Moments later, Genoa took the lead thanks to a sensational solo strike from former Venezia midfielder Mikael Ellertsson, who hit a left-foot screamer from outside the area into the near top corner. He did not celebrate against his old club out of respect.

Junior Messias scuffed a volley just wide from the smart dinked Stephan El Shaarawy ball over the top, but Bijlow had to be alert to push the Yeboah cross-shot round the far post.

Venezia came out fighting for the restart, as Ridgeciano Haps and Redouane Halhal headers were not up to scratch, then Bijlow spilled snapshots from Kike Perez and Adams.

Simon Sohm should’ve done better with a free header over the bar from a corner, then Yeboah’s acrobatic attempt from another set play was deflected inches off target.

Samuel Wiafe went off with a suspected groin injury and the Kike Perez cross-shot flashed not far wide of the top corner.

In added time, Bijlow had his gloves stung by Adams and had to be alert to keep all three points.

Ellertsson 25 (G)

1st half

2nd half

Genoa

Venezia

1

Goalkeeper

22

Defender

5

Defender

2

Defender

81'

34

Defender

70'

25

Midfielder

71

Midfielder

81'

10

Attacker

62'

77

Attacker

18

Attacker

92

Attacker

62'

1

Goalkeeper

Defender

2

Defender

25

Defender

5

Defender

71'

18

Midfielder

79'

10

Midfielder

71

Midfielder

19

Midfielder

87'

26

Midfielder

71'

45

Attacker

20

Defender

8

Midfielder

39

Goalkeeper

9

Attacker

99

Goalkeeper

14

Defender

11

Midfielder

21

Midfielder

16

Defender

32

Midfielder

62'

29

Attacker

62'

27

Defender

70'

4

Midfielder

81'

31

Defender

81'

32

Midfielder

96

Goalkeeper

6

Midfielder

21

Midfielder

17

Defender

20

Defender

3

Defender