Serie A

Football Italia

·10 March 2024

Serie A | Lecce 0-1 Verona: Hellas flying with Folorunsho

A deflected Michael Folorunsho effort proved decisive, allowing Verona to climb out of the bottom three and leapfrog Lecce in the table.

Other results this weekend put even more pressure on the two teams in this relegation dogfight. The hosts have lost Mohamed Kaba for the rest of the season with a torn ACL, while Hellas had Pawel Dawidowicz suspended.

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Napoli-owned Folorunsho turned a free header over from a corner and Lorenzo Montipò came rushing off his line to parry from Lameck Banda, but Verona took the lead with a stroke of luck.

Tomas Suslov found Folorunsho outside the area and the snapshot took a decisive deflection off Federico Baschirotto to squirm into the near bottom corner past Wladimiro Falcone’s fingertips.

Lecce were awarded a penalty on 23 minutes when Lameck Banda’s curler was deflected by Giangiacomo Magnani’s hand. However, it was revoked following a VAR On-Field Review, as Magnani’s arms were flush to the body and there was nothing more he could’ve done to avoid contact.

The hosts had a series of corners, with deflections forcing Lorenzo Montipò to fingertip over the bar, then Almqvist’s curler went over him to thump the woodwork.

Montipò made a great reaction save just before half-time to deny the Nikola Krstovic glancing header from 10 yards.

Lecce continued to pour forward after the break with a series of corners and set plays, but failed to get any really dangerous efforts on target, as Roberto Piccoli accidentally charged down an attempt from teammate Krstovic.

It was a tense finale, ending in a brawl between Thomas Henry and Marin Pongracic, which resulted in the Verona striker’s red card.