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·13 April 2024

Serie A | Lecce 1-0 Empoli: Sansone snatches safety

Nicola Sansone’s last-minute goal gives Lecce a comfortable cushion from the relegation zone, but VAR intervened on an unusual incident to disallow Empoli’s opener.

Only one point separated these teams going into the weekend, who were respectively three and two points clear of the drop zone. Nikola Krstovic was suspended following the red card against Milan, with Kastriot Dermaku, Mohamed Kaba and Jeppe Corfitzen still injured. The visitors missed Tyronne Ebuehi, Ardian Ismajli and Etrit Berisha, but ended their run of four consecutive defeats by beating Torino 3-2.

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It was a chaotic start to the match, as Elia Caprile slightly misjudged the flight of the ball and then his foot slipped, so he tried to prevent himself dragging the ball out of the box. He then started an attacking move that led to Matteo Cancellieri pulling back from the by-line for the Alberto Cerri tap-in from six yards. However, VAR intervened and had the referee judge the Caprile incident to disallow the goal, but there was no red card – only a free kick – as Caprile had handled outside the penalty area. It was considered an attacking handball.

Caprile was called into action first on the Valentin Gendrey volley at the back post on a free kick, then getting down to parry the Patrick Dorgu header on the resulting corner.

Federico Baschirotto’s shot took a big deflection off Sebastian Walukiewicz, forcing Caprile to fingertip it over the bar, while Cancellieri’s chest and overhead kick went just off target.

Wladimiro Falcone needed a desperate double save on a corner, first the deflected Walukiewicz header, then the Cerri follow-up from point-blank range.

At the other end, Marin Pongracic’s deflection caused chaos on another set play, Roberto Piccoli knocking the rebound onto the top of the crossbar.

Caprile palmed a Federico Baschirotto header away from a corner after the restart, while Remy Oudin’s shot was deflected over after Antonino Gallo squirmed between two to pull back from the by-line.

The deadlock was finally broken in the last minute when substitute Santiago Pierotti shrugged off the weak Walukiewicz inside the penalty area and rolled across for Nicola Sansone to deposit into the empty net.