Parma vs Genoa: Serie A Strugglers Seek First Win

Two of Serie A’s strugglers collide at the Ennio Tardini on Sunday, as Parma and Genoa – both still searching for a first league win of the 2026-27 campaign – try to drag themselves out of an early-season rut.

Five games in, and neither has tasted victory in Serie A. Both have only found any joy in the cups. Something has to give in Emilia-Romagna. Or does it?

Parma stuck between promise and anxiety

Parma’s season can be dressed up or stripped bare, depending on how harshly you judge them.

On paper, Carlos Cuesta’s side have not won a competitive game since a 2-0 Coppa Italia success over Catania in mid-August. Since then: four defeats in five, goals drying up, confidence fraying. The numbers do not flatter them.

The most worrying stretch came in that run of blanks. A 1-0 loss to Cagliari, a 2-0 defeat to Juventus, then a 2-0 Coppa Italia exit to Cremonese at the start of September. Three straight games without scoring, three straight reminders of how unforgiving the top flight can be.

Yet Parma have shown a flicker of life.

They finally got off the mark in Serie A with a 1-1 draw against Monza on matchday four, their first point of the season. Then came a narrow 2-1 defeat away to Champions League debutants Como on Monday night – a loss, but not a capitulation, against one of the division’s early stories.

Cuesta will cling to those performances. They hint at a side edging towards something more coherent, even if the table still says 17th and winless.

History offers little comfort. Parma have not beaten Genoa in three years and are on a four-match winless run against the Ligurian club. If they are to break that sequence, they must do it without the man who carried much of their attacking weight last season: Mateo Pellegrino, now at Fiorentina.

That departure has left a clear void. After four league games, only Simone Lontani and David Romero have scored for the hosts. Everyone else is still waiting to open their account. For a side already short on margin for error, that is a brutal handicap.

At least Cuesta’s selection headache is light. Hans Nicolussi Caviglia misses out with a groin problem, but he is the only confirmed absentee.

Parma are expected to line up with Corvi in goal, a back three of Delprato, Troilo and Carlos, and width from Britschgi and Valeri. Bernabe and Keita should anchor midfield, with Toure supporting Lontani and Romero up front. The structure is there. The question is whether the finishing touch finally arrives.

De Rossi’s Genoa searching for a spark

On the opposite bench, Daniele De Rossi brings a different kind of tension.

Genoa arrive on the back of a midweek cup win over Sudtirol, a much-needed clean sheet and a brief reminder that they can still control a game. But Serie A has been a different story under the former World Cup winner in recent months.

The Grifone are on a nine-match winless run in the league. Their last top-flight victory came against Pisa – a 2-1 success over a side that has since dropped out of Serie A. Since then: six defeats, three draws, and a slide that has left them second-bottom after four matchdays this season.

The table is tight enough that one win could change the mood. If results elsewhere fall kindly, Genoa could jump as high as 13th with three points on Sunday. The gap is not insurmountable. The problem is more fundamental: both ends of the pitch are failing them.

Genoa have scored just two league goals so far – the same meagre tally as Parma. No one in Serie A has managed fewer. At the back, they have conceded eight, the fifth-worst record in the division. Only Venezia, Monza and Fiorentina (11 each) and Udinese (10) have shipped more.

The clean sheet against Sudtirol was a small step, but it came at a cost. Johan Vasquez, scorer against Frosinone and the match-winner in that cup tie, is suspended after his red card last weekend. De Rossi also has to cope without Elias Havel (ankle) and Lorenzo Venturino (knee), both sidelined.

That puts extra responsibility on Milutin Osmajic, the only other Genoa player to have scored this season. His solitary goal came in a bruising 4-1 loss to Como in early September. On Sunday, he leads the line again, chasing a second strike that could finally tilt Genoa’s league campaign in a different direction.

Genoa are likely to set up with Bijlow in goal behind a back three of Marcandalli, Ostigard and Otoa. Ehizibue and Ellertsson should patrol the flanks, with Frendrup and Sow battling in central midfield. Baldanzi is expected to operate between the lines, supporting Osmajic and Colombo up front.

The shape suggests intent. The recent form does not.

A match crying out for a breakthrough

Strip away the names and the history, and this looks like a meeting of two sides paralysed in the same area: the penalty box.

Both create in patches, both suffer long droughts, both have scored just twice in the league. Both have leaned on the cups for any sense of progress. It is no surprise that the last two meetings between Parma and Genoa ended 0-0.

The risk is obvious. Another stalemate, another afternoon of half-chances and nervous defending, another step sideways for clubs that desperately need to move forward.

The expectation? A tight, cagey contest, with defences on top and attacks still trying to remember what it feels like to cut loose.

Parma 0-0 Genoa feels entirely on script.

The real story will be whether either of these teams can finally rip that script up and start their season for real.