Parma vs Genoa: A Clash of Winless Sides in Serie A

Two of Serie A’s five winless sides walk into Ennio Tardini on Sunday with the same burden and the same hope. Parma and Genoa are still chasing their first league victory of the 2026-27 season, and both know this is the kind of game that can tilt a campaign one way or the other.

Two teams stuck in neutral

You can paint Parma’s start in two different colours.

On one side, Carlos Cuesta’s team have not tasted victory in any competition since a 2-0 Coppa Italia win over Catania in mid-August. That was supposed to be a launchpad. Instead, it was followed by four defeats in five, a run that has stripped away much of the early optimism around the Emilian club.

The goals dried up first. Parma failed to score in Serie A losses to Cagliari (1-0) and Juventus (2-0), then went out of the cup with a 2-0 defeat at Cremonese at the beginning of September. The pattern was worrying: blunt in attack, fragile when it mattered.

Then came a flicker of resistance. A 1-1 draw with Monza on matchday four finally put a point on the board, and they pushed Champions League debutants Como hard on Monday night before losing 2-1. It was another defeat, but not another collapse.

Cuesta will cling to those small steps. Parma have gone three years without beating Genoa and are on a four-game winless run against the Ligurian side, yet this feels like a chance to reset that storyline in front of their own fans.

De Rossi’s Genoa searching for a spark

On the opposite bench, Daniele De Rossi is fighting his own early-season storm.

Genoa arrive in Emilia-Romagna buoyed slightly by a midweek cup win over Sudtirol, a much-needed clean sheet and a reminder that they can still close out a game. But the league table tells a harsher truth: nine Serie A matches without a win under the former World Cup winner.

Their last league victory came against Pisa, a 2-1 success over a side now relegated. Since then, the Grifone have stumbled to six defeats and three draws, a sequence that has dumped them second-bottom after four games of this campaign.

A win on Sunday could haul them as high as 13th if other results fall kindly. That’s the carrot. The stick is obvious: no team in Serie A has scored fewer than their two goals so far, a tally matched only by Parma in 17th place. At the back, Genoa have shipped eight goals, the fifth-worst record in the division behind Venezia, Monza and Fiorentina (11 each) and Udinese (10).

The clean sheet against Sudtirol offers a sliver of hope. Now the question is whether the Rossoblu can turn that into their first league win in 10 attempts.

Team news: thin margins, missing pieces

Cuesta’s selection problems are limited but significant. Hans Nicolussi Caviglia misses out with a groin issue, Parma’s only confirmed absentee, yet his absence narrows the coach’s midfield options.

More pressing is the hole left by last season’s nine-goal forward Mateo Pellegrino, now at Fiorentina. Without him, Parma are still searching for a new reference point in the final third. So far, only Simone Lontani and David Romero have found the net in Serie A after four gameweeks, a stark illustration of their attacking struggles.

Genoa’s situation is more complicated. Johan Vasquez, scorer against Frosinone and the midweek match-winner versus Sudtirol, is suspended after his red card last weekend. His energy and knack for decisive moments will be badly missed.

Elias Havel (ankle) and Lorenzo Venturino (knee) are also sidelined, thinning De Rossi’s options further. That heaps extra responsibility on Milutin Osmajic, the only other Genoa player to score this term. He heads into Sunday still stuck on the solitary goal he netted in the 4-1 loss to Como in early September, desperate to turn isolated moments into a sustained run.

Probable lineups

Parma are expected to line up with:

• Corvi; Delprato, Troilo, Carlos; Britschgi, Bernabe, Keita, Valeri; Toure, Lontani; Romero

Genoa could respond with:

• Bijlow; Marcandalli, Ostigard, Otoa; Ehizibue, Frendrup, Sow, Ellertsson; Baldanzi; Osmajic, Colombo

A game crying out for a breakthrough

Two teams, two goals each, four matches gone. Both short of confidence. Both short of ideas in the final third.

It points towards another cagey contest, the kind where one mistake or one flash of quality decides everything. Recent history between these sides offers little encouragement for neutrals: Parma and Genoa have played out two consecutive 0-0 draws, and the signs suggest a similar script.

Prediction: Parma 0-0 Genoa.

If neither attack wakes up on Sunday, the table will keep telling the same story — and patience in both dugouts will grow a little thinner.