Mourinho spoils Shevchenko's debut date

Andriy Shevchenko made his debut as Genoa coach with Jose Mourinho's 0-2 loss to Roma at home, in the 13th round of Serie A on November 21.

The hero of Roma is Felix Afena-Gyan. The 18-year-old Ghanaian striker scored twice in the final ten minutes of the game, having replaced rookie Eldor Shomurodov from the 74th minute. Afena-Gyan thus became the youngest player to score twice in a single match in five leagues. top in Europe this season, as well as the youngest Roma player to score two goals in a Serie A match, since a win counts for three points. Afena-Gyan is also the first player born in 2003 to shoot in the number one Italian league.

Lowering Genoa 2-0, Roma rose to fifth with 22 points, three points behind the team ranked above Atalanta. Meanwhile, Genoa is 18th with nine points, two points behind the safety group.

Genoa sacked coach Davide Ballardini when the club went through a nine-game winless streak, relegated to the red light group, and gave Shevchenko confidence. The 45-year-old leader, because of some disagreements with the Ukrainian Football Federation, broke up with the Ukraine national team right after joining them in the 1/8 round of Euro 2021.

On his return to Serie A - where he once enjoyed the peak years of his career as a player, Shevchenko used a five-back formation, with the striker duo Goran Pandev and Caleb Ekuban. Mourinho also used a similar tactic, with a trio of central defenders Roger Ibanez, Marash Kumbulla and Gianluca Mancini. In attack, Henrikh Mkhitaryan kicks behind the striker duo Tammy Abraham and Shomurodov.

Despite having to play away, Roma dominated when controlling 60% of the time, finishing 19 times, including four on target. Meanwhile, Genoa only launched a single shot during 90 minutes.

Mourinho's army seemed to have advanced in the 14th minute. Shomurodov crossed the ball to hit the Genoa player's foot to the right of Mkhitaryan's goal. The former Man Utd and Arsenal midfielder volleyed one-touch and sent the ball to the far corner to hit the home net. But VAR then stepped in, determined the ball had lightly touched Abraham's hand after Mkhitaryan had finished, and denied the goal.

In the 29th minute, Roma missed another delicious opportunity. El Shaarawy sped from the home field, eliminated a Genoa player and then closed the penalty area. He passed smoothly, but Shomurodov bounced the ball over the bar in front of an empty goal.

The one-sided game was maintained by Roma in the second half. 50 minutes, Mkhitaryan made a gesture to eliminate midfielder Milan Badelj, but his shot right next to the penalty area sent the ball over the bar.

The difference was only made when Mourinho put his faith in Afena-Gyan. In the 82nd minute, Mkhitaryan created an assist for the Ghanaian striker to finish the corner and hit the home net. After scoring, Afena-Gyan ran to the training area to celebrate with Mourinho and other members.

Not stopping there, Afena-Gyan also created a masterpiece in the fourth minute of injury time. From the opponent's save, Afena-Gyan went up, dribbled the ball a beat before finishing from about 25m into the far corner of the goal, sealing a 2-0 victory for Roma.

In the next round, Roma returned home to Torino, and Genoa had to be a guest of Udinese - the team currently ranked 15th.

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