Cyril Ngonge was one hero for Verona and Lorenzo Montipò the other with his penalty save on M’Bala Nzola, as 10-man Verona beat Spezia 3-1 in the Serie A relegation play-off.
These teams finished level on points, so under rules introduced this season, had to go into a single play-off match on neutral turf at the Mapei Stadium in Reggio Emilia. It was the first relegation play-off since 2005, although the last time it was a one-off game was in 1997. If tied after 90 minutes, it’d go straight to a penalty shoot-out.
Emmanuel Gyasi and Kelvin Amian were suspended, with Daniel Maldini and Joao Moutinho not fully fit, while Hellas missed Kevin Lasagna, Thomas Henry and Ondrej Duda, but Pawel Dawidowicz recovered to start.
It took under five minutes to break the deadlock, as Darko Lazovic juggled the ball over Przemyslaw Wisniewski and pulled back for Marco Davide Faraoni’s strike, which went in despite the efforts of Bartlomiej Dragowski and Ethan Ampadu on the line.
Arkadiusz Reca smashed just wide, then Dawidowicz nodded over from a hugely promising position as Isak Hien knocked on the corner.
That proved costly, because Spezia equalised moments later when a free kick was cleared to the edge of the area for a ferocious Ampadu strike that took a double deflection into the top corner.
Verona restored their advantage after good work from Ibrahim Sulemana to resist a foul, as Cyril Ngonge combined with Milan Djuric to drill low from 12 yards.
Faraoni charged down the Wisniewski attempt at the back post after a Salvatore Esposito free kick squirmed through, but Verona were again more clinical with Ngonge on the counter-attack.
He pounced on Nikolaou’s error in the centre-circle and sprinted forward, the finish surprising Dragowski at the near post with a deflection off Ampadu.
Lorenzo Montipò made a sensational save on Szymon Zurkowski’s cushioned volley from 12 yards, pushing it round the base of the far upright.
However, the game changed on 68 minutes when a lob beat Montipò and was going into the empty net, until Faraoni decided to punch it off the line. That left Verona down to 10 men and gifted a penalty, but still Spezia failed to make the most of it, as M’Bala Nzola’s weak spot-kick was saved by Montipò.
Spezia poured forward and continued to waste their chances, as Nzola nodded over, Montipò made the save from Daniele Verde from close range, but above all Nzola failed to take advantage of a defensive error and was too slow to react from six yards.
Ampadu was frustrated in stoppages, his ferocious half-volley from the edge of the area smacking against the crossbar and Nzola stinging the goalkeeper’s gloves again, as Spezia are relegated to Serie B.
Spezia 1-3 Verona
Faraoni 5 (V), Ampadu 15 (S), Ngonge 26, 38 (V)
Sent off: Faraoni 68 (V)
Saved penalty: Nzola 70 (S)
Player statistic
| 5' |  |
Davide Faraoni (Assist: Darko Lazovic) | ||
| 14' |  |
Isak Hien | ||
| Ethan Ampadu (Assist: Eldor Shomurodov) |
|
15' | ||
| 26' | |
Cyril Ngonge (Assist: Milan Djuric) | ||
| 28' | |
Fabio Depaoli | ||
| 31' | |
Pawel Dawidowicz | ||
| 38' | |
Cyril Ngonge |
| 66' | |
Lorenzo Montipò | ||
| 68' |  |
Davide Faraoni | ||
| M’Bala Nzola |  |
70' | ||
| 70' | |
Cyril Ngonge | ||
| Arkadiusz Reca | |
71' | ||
| Salvatore Esposito | |
77' |
Match statistic
