Serie A | Roma 2-0 Genoa: First time special for Castro and Lulli
ROME, ITALY - OCTOBER 17: Santiago Castro of AS Roma celebrates scoring his team’s first goal during the Serie A match between AS Roma and Genoa CFC at Stadio Olimpico on October 17, 2026 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Paolo Bruno/Getty Images)
Roma got back on track beating Daniele De Rossi’s Genoa 2-0 thanks to the first goals for the club from Santiago Castro and Emanuele Lulli.
The Giallorossi drew their last two Serie A games and fumbled a 3-1 lead in the final minutes for a 4-3 Champions League defeat to Real Madrid on Wednesday night. Donyell Malen was suspended after his red card against Como, with Paulo Dybala, Manu Koné, Mile Svilar and Bryan Cristante injured, so there were seven changes from Europe.
It was an emotional return to the Stadio Olimpico for ex-Roma stars Daniele De Rossi and Stephan El Shaarawy, fresh from Genoa’s first Serie A victory of the season against Fiorentina. Lorenzo Colombo, Alex Amorim, Djibril Sow, Franz-Ethan Meichtry and Lorenzo Venturino were carrying knocks, but Italy Under-19 international Samuel Wiafe got his first Serie A start.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
El Shaarawy almost made an immediate impact, Pierluigi Gollini parrying with his legs at the near post after nine minutes, while Matias Soulé swept far too centrally first-time from the edge of the area.
Roma came so close on the half-hour mark, as Leonardo Balerdi nodded a Niccolò Pisilli corner kick onto the crossbar. Moments later, Rodrigo Mora’s header was well parried off the line by Justin Bijlow, with Santiago Castro offside on the rebound.
Moments later, Genoa also rattled the woodwork with El Shaarawy’s first-time strike bouncing off the bar from the edge of the area after a decisive block on Milutin Osmajic.
Roma did take the lead in bizarre fashion after the restart, as the corner was knocked down in a crowd at the near post, Castro managed to turn and dink it into the far top corner from seven yards with an odd, looping finish. It was a great bit of improvisation from the former Bologna striker, who netted his first goal for the club.
The second goal was another moment of individual brilliance, as Matias Soulé started the run from inside his own half, riding two tackles, completing a give and go with Lorenzo Pellegrini, then his shot was deflected off a Genoa player into the path of Emanuele Lulli at the back post. It was the first Serie A goal for the 19-year-old youth academy product.
Osmajic stung Gollini’s gloves with a powerful strike and Genoa gave the Serie A debut to Robinho Junior, the son of former Milan and Brazil striker Robinho.
Castro 50 (R), Lulli 68 (R)
1st half
2nd half
| Santiago Castro |  |
50' | ||
| 51' |  |
Johan Vásquez | ||
| 65' | Leo Östigard | |||
| Emanuele Lulli | 68' | |||
| Niccolò Pisilli | 76' | |||
| 81' | Mikael Egill Ellertsson |
ROM
GEN
95
Goalkeeper
2
Defender
77
Defender
78'
5
Defender
3
Defender
63'
26
Defender
15
Midfielder
61
Midfielder
86
Midfielder
63'
18
Attacker
9
Attacker
1
Goalkeeper
27
Defender
31
Defender
22
Defender
5
Defender
32
Midfielder
83'
71
Midfielder
10
Attacker
83'
77
Attacker
18
Attacker
92
Attacker
65'
23
Defender
20
Defender
32
Goalkeeper
87
Defender
70
Goalkeeper
68
Attacker
72
Attacker
78
Midfielder
63
Midfielder
7
Midfielder
63'
22
Defender
63'
43
Defender
78'
20
Defender
8
Midfielder
25
Midfielder
39
Goalkeeper
2
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.