Genoa and Fiorentina played out a 0-0 draw at Stadio Luigi Ferraris on Sunday afternoon.
Both sides lacked attacking cohesion with few chances created. The hosts went closest with Diego Laxalt and Leonardo Pavoletti forcing saves from the Fiorentina stopper.
The Grifone came into the fixture with seven points from their last three games, whilst the Viola had dropped to third in recent times after their impressive start to the campaign looked to be tailing off slightly.
Both sides started brightly with Genoa taking command of the play, not letting Fiorentina settle, thus reducing the away side to counterattacks.
Despite good passing play, very few chances were created in the first period.
Khouma Babacar really should have opened the scoring on the half hour mark as he latched on to a pinpoint pass, but he failed to sort out his feet and some good defending snuffed out the opportunity to shoot.
The two best chances of the half for the home side, fell to Laxalt.
Firstly in the 35th minute, the wing-back connected with lovely lofted pass from Cristian Ansaldi, but watched his close-range header fly over the bar.
Then, in the closing moments, the Uruguayan broke on the left and managed a shot in the box which was easily saved by Ciprian Tatarusanu.
The second half started with much more urgency, with the Rossoblu having a couple of efforts in the first five minutes. Suso unleashed a classy strike, which hit the post with the ‘keeper beaten. Pavoletti then missed a golden opportunity from close range after the chance was put on a plate for him; Tatarusanu came out bravely to smother the shot.
Both managers made double attacking substitutes in an effort to inject some fluidity into their forward play. Sadly, this had the opposite effect as neither side were able to create anything clear-cut in the remaining 30 minutes.
Mattia Perin did pull off a wonderful save in the dying seconds, keeping out a long range strike from Marcos Alonso, thus consigning both teams to a 0-0 draw.
The result leaves Fiorentina in third and Genoa in 16th, just five points above the drop.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com