(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
AFP
Milan, Italy: Genoa continued their revival under Patrick Vieira on Sunday with their first home win of the season, 1-0 over relegation rivals Parma, in front of new majority shareholder Dan Sucu.
Morten Frendrup's wildly deflected strike in the 65th minute gave Genoa their third win since France and Arsenal icon Vieira replaced Alberto Gilardino in November.
Genoa are up to 11th, level on 23 points with Roma who are at Bologna later on Sunday, and five points above the relegation zone.
Under Vieira, Italy's oldest football club have lost just once in eight matches, a narrow defeat to league leaders Napoli just before Christmas.
It made for a propitious first appearance at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris for Sucu who took over Genoa last month after he subscribed to a 45 million euro ($46.3 million) capital increase which gave him 77 percent of the club.
That operation brought to an end the ownership of controversial investment company 777 Partners, who acquired 99.9 percent of Genoa in September 2021 but were issued with a winding up order by the United Kingdom's High Court last year.
Sucu's ownership is contested by another investment firm and 777 creditor, Advantage Capital (A-Cap), who say they were Genoa's rightful owners after taking control of 777's football assets.
A-Cap called the arrival of Sucu, who also owns Rapid Bucharest, a "non-approved clandestine operation" before Genoa said that the takeover was final and that any news to the contrary was false.
Parma are a point and place above the bottom three and face three key clashes with follow strugglers Venezia, Lecce and Cagliari in the next few weeks.
Later, Napoli can extend their two-point lead at the top of the division with a home win over Verona, while injury-hit champions Inter will go second above Atalanta if they beat Venezia in Venice.
Napoli will be without Khvicha Kvaratskhelia who coach Antonio Conte said on Saturday has asked to be sold, with an 80 million euro transfer to Paris Saint-Germain reportedly in the works.
Kvaratskhelia was one of the stars of Napoli's historic third Scudetto in 2023, their first since 1990 and the days of Diego Maradona.
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