GENOA -Two gestures, one beautiful of great delicacy, the other of violence: in the pre-match of Genoa Cagliari there was a summary of what football ultras can be.
The first, the positive one, which confirms that even among rival fans there can be room for respect, the Genoans from the North showed this by making the Cagliaritans find a banner of thanks (in the photo below) for the solidarity shown in the first leg match in Sardinia. That day, it was November 5 last year, when a Genoan had felt ill in the stands, even the “Sconvolts”” of Cagliari had fallen silent, they had no longer supported, not only that, but they had also gone to the emergency room to make sure of the boy’s condition. True solidarity, in short.
So today in front of the entrance to the South cage the Genoans left a banner of thanks: “5 11 2023 thanks Sconvolts Cagliari, signed: North steps”. This doesn’t mean that love had broken out between the two historically rival fans, but it was already something.
It’s a shame, however, that the Cagliari fans only read that banner when they arrived in front of the stadium, too late, and probably not all Genoans were aware of it.
This explains the clashes that occurred around 7.30pm in via Canevari (photo above and in the video), in the Borgo Incrociati area: according to Digos, there a large number of fans dressed in black arriving from Sardinia came into contact with a group of Genoans who were probably reaching the stadium on motorbikes, as can be seen from the fact that they were wearing helmets.
This resulted in clashes, or just skirmishes as if to show off their muscles, some Sardinian hooded fans armed with sticks, belts and even throwing posters from the petrol station, attacked the Genoans arriving from Piazza Raggi, who were forced to retreat because in that moment in numerical inferiority.
The riots frightened passers-by even if they lasted a few minutes, the time needed for the Digos police to intercept the Cagliari fans heading towards the stadium and escort them together with the rest of the visiting fans. From the first official news there were no injuries, or rather no one went to hospital or asked for help on 118. But certainly these skirmishes, splinters of violence, overshadowed the beautiful gesture of the Genoans.
