Serie A | Verona 2-2 Lecce: Four goal thriller ends level

Hellas Verona and Lecce had to settle for a point after goals from Remi Oudin, Cyril Ngonge, Joan Gonzalez and Milan Djuric sealed a 2-2 draw at the Marcantonio Bentegodi stadium.

Ngonge was brought down by Dorgu 10 yards off the byline five minutes in. The Lecce wideman dusted himself off to take the free kick, before firing a shot-cross over the bar.

Ngonge stung the palms of Wladimiro Falcone from distance moments later, but the Lecce ‘keeper was only able to parry back into the danger zone. A backtracking Marin Pongracic was able to hook the ball behind for a corner.

Michael Folorunsho connected sweetly with a ball that fell to him on the edge of the D after 17 minutes, but his venomous strike sailed wide of Falcone’s posts.

Lecce’s first real effort of the game came courtesy of Oudin with 25 minutes on the clock. His powerful strike from 25 yards out earned the visitors a corner, which resulted in Nicola Sansone firing another effort over the bar from a similar position to the original shot.

Lecce immediately began to grow in confidence after Oudin’s effort, as Banda drove forwards on the left before bending a decent effort just wide of the Verona goal.

With exactly half an hour gone, Lecce made the breakthrough. A hospital pass out of the area from Isak Hien was collected gratefully by Oudin, who bent a curling shot in off the post from the edge of the area.

The visitors continued to attack with serious intent in the moments after, although they were ultimately unable to double their lead.

Another sloppy pass out from the back led to Verona’s equaliser, as Dorgu played the ball directly into Milan Djuric 30 yards away from his own goal.

The Bosnian found Ngonge, Verona’s most threatening player of the first half, who burst into the area before squeezing a right-footed effort from a tight angle in past the near post.

Into the second period, Verona came close with an Ngonge free-kick, which required a strong wrist from Falcone to tip the ball over the crossbar.

Ondrej Duda launched a fierce drive towards Falcone’s net after an hour, which again required a strong intervention from the Lecce ‘keeper.

There were handbags following a coming together between Tomas Suslov and Alexis Blin after 65 minutes, although a conversation between the referee and the two captains was enough to diffuse the situation.

Shortly afterwards, Gonzalez drove into space and was not stopped before entering the Verona penalty area. His shot from a wide angle took a wicked deflection to sail past Lorenzo Montipo’s far post to reinstate Lecce’s lead.

The scores were level again with 13 minutes of regular time left to play as Djuric connected with a deep free-kick into the area to head home past Falcone, also with the help of a deflection en route.

For a brief moment, Lecce thought they had won it when Krstovic put the ball in the back of the net after 88 minutes, although Banda had been clearly offside in the build-up.

In what had been an end-to-end affair for large sections of the 90 minutes, a point apiece seemed the fair result.

Verona 2-2 Lecce

Oudin 30′ (L), Ngonge 41′ (V), Gonzalez 69′ (L), Djuric 78′ (V)