Lorenzo Colombo bagged a brace at the Bentegodi along with a Luca Caldirola header, as Monza flattened Verona 3-1 to soar into the European spots.
Hellas had started the season with back-to-back wins, but it has since been all downhill with just two points from eight rounds and a midweek Coppa Italia exit to Bologna. The visitors lost Armando Izzo and Gianluca Caprari to injury, with Papu Gomez sitting out a doping ban.
It was a strong start from Monza, as Lorenzo Colombo forced a tricky save and on the resulting corner Pablo Mari clipped the outside of the far post.
Pawel Dawidowicz pulled up with a thigh strain and while Verona were down to 10 men waiting to make the substitution, Roberto Gagliardini turned a free header just wide.
Hellas rattled the frame of the goal too, as the Ondrej Duda right-foot curler from the edge of the area thumped the crossbar.
Andrea Colpani dribbled past a defender and goalkeeper, but was only able to hit the side-netting from the narrow angle.
Monza took the lead with a great counter-attack, as Gagliardini won it back in midfield, Colombo sent Colpani running and was ready for the return pass, squeezing it past the on-rushing goalkeeper.
Federico Bonazzoli wasted a huge opportunity to equalise straight after the restart, volleying over from seven yards when Darko Lazovic nodded a cross back in from the far post.
Milan Djuric’s glancing header flashed just wide and the Lazovic daisy-cutter was smothered, but they failed to make 25 minutes of pinning Monza back into their own half count.
Samuele Birindelli’s angled drive tested Lorenzo Montipò and Colombo completed his brace to double Monza’s lead with a ferocious left-foot screamer into the top corner from the edge of the box.
Luca Caldirola finished off the rout with a header into the ground from a Kyriakopoulos corner, the first time Monza have scored this season from a set play situation.
It still wasn’t over, as Verona finally got on the scoresheet with Michael Folorunsho’s volley taking a huge deflection off Pablo Mari to wrong-foot Di Gregorio from Cyril Ngonge’s pull-back.
Verona 1-3 Monza
Colombo 41, 73 (M), Caldirola 84 (M), Folorunsho 86 (V)
Player statistic
| 25' |  |
Danilo D’Ambrosio | ||
| 41' |  |
Lorenzo Colombo (Assist: Andrea Colpani) | ||
| 45' | |
Lorenzo Colombo |
| Davide Faraoni | |
70' | ||
| 73' | |
Lorenzo Colombo (Assist: Valentín Carboni) | ||
| 84' | |
Luca Caldirola (Assist: Georgios Kyriakopoulos) | ||
| Michael Folorunsho (Assist: Cyril Ngonge) |
|
86' |
Match statistic
