Genoa 3 Udinese 0
Genoa eased past 10-man Udinese with a comfortable 3-0 win at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris tonight.
Robert Acquafresca scored his first goals for Genoa in the 30th and 53rd minutes, the second from the penalty spot, and Rodrigo Palacio completed the scoring for the Ligurians in the 64th minute.
Udinese lost Cristian Zapata to a red card in the 57th minute as he fell foul to new severe rules aimed at reducing the amount of swearing on the field, and they could drop into the bottom three of Serie A tomorrow.
Genoa moved up to seventh, climbing above Palermo, who host Lazio tomorrow.
Udinese started brightly with Antonio Di Natale causing the Genoa defence a whole manner of problems early on.
He could not make any room for a shot though as Genoa defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos grew in confidence with every tackle won.
He covered well when a long ball forward from Kwadwo Asamoah found Di Natale with just Marco Amelia to beat, but the Udinese attacker was forced wide by the Greek defender, who then carried the ball out of danger when Di Natale's eventual shot was parried.
Genoa also grew in confidence as the first half progressed and, having snuffed out Udinese's most dangerous outlet, they began to ask questions themselves.
And they went ahead in the 30th minute thanks to Acquafresca's first goal in Rossoblu.
He found himself in the right place at the right time to lift the ball into the top corner after Samir Handanovic only parried Giuseppe Sculli's shot.
A weight appeared to be lifted from the shoulders of the Genoa players, who started to show more composure on the ball and went close to a second just two minutes later, but Acquafresca seemed to take the ball away from Domenico Criscito as he came in to shoot.
Alberto Zapater then curled a 25-yard shot wide of the far post, epitomising his and Genoa's new-found belief.
Their second goal game in the 53rd minute when Andrea Coda pushed Acquafresca to the ground inside the penalty area as the Genoa forward attempted to meet a corner from Zapater.
Acquafresca stepped up to stroke the spot-kick home and double Genoa's advantage.
Udinese lost their temper and they lost their central defender Zapater in the 57th minute when he talked himself into two yellow cards in a matter of seconds with referee Roberto Rosetti taking exception to his backchat.
And they lost any hope of getting back into the game in the 64th minute when Palacio bagged Genoa's third.
Sculli never gave up on a Zapater free-kick which was flicked on by Dario Dainelli and he dragged the ball across the face of goal where Palacio was on hand to tap it into the empty goal from close range.
Zapater came close to a deserved fourth goal in the 88th minute, but the Spaniard's 25-yard volley just cleared the crossbar before Bosko Jankovic went even closer from the same distance.