Serie A

Football Italia

·20 April 2024

Serie A | Verona 1-0 Udinese: Last-gasp victory

Verona hit the woodwork twice, while Udinese missed a couple of sitters before Diego Coppola snatched a last-gasp victory in this relegation dogfight.

This was a huge battle to avoid sliding into the bottom three, as both were hovering one point above the drop zone. The Friulani had a game in hand, as last week’s match with Roma was suspended at the 72nd minute with the scores at 1-1, so the remaining 20 minutes will be played on April 25.

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Suat Serdar returned from his ban for the hosts, while Sandi Lovric, Florian Thauvin, Lautaro Giannetti, Keinan Davis, Enzo Ebosse and Gerard Deulofeu didn’t make the trip.

Diego Coppola shinned a corner over from six yards, while Jaka Bijol at full stretch just failed to get his head to a Lazar Samardzic free kick at the back post.

Lorenzo Montipò had to make a stunning reaction save when a low corner found Lorenzo Lucca, using his leg to parry the finish from close range.

Verona thought they had to score when Darko Lazovic pulled back from the by-line for the Tijjani Noslin tap-in, but Kingsley Ehizibue got back for a decisive block.

On the resulting corner, Noslin had another huge chance with a free header thumping the upright.

Both sides came out fighting after the restart, first Noslin unable to meet the Michael Folorunsho pull-back, then Lucca blasting over from 10 yards on a Samardzic back-heel assist.

Udinese were very wasteful, Ehizibue somehow completely misjudging the Kamara cross and hitting a fresh-air shot from 10 yards, then Bijol nodding inches wide from a corner.

Roberto Pereyra had the ball in the net on 64 minutes when dribbling around Montipò, but had timed his run incorrectly and was flagged offside.

It was wide open with both teams having shots charged down, while Ehizibue had fired straight at Montipò and again was offside.

Verona hit the frame of the goal again on 87 minutes, this time a Folorunsho header thumping the crossbar on an Ondrej Duda free kick.

Deep into stoppages, after a series of dangerous set plays, Verona finally broke through when a corner found Diego Coppola for a header into the far top corner that sent the Stadio Bentegodi crowd wild.