Cremonese were down to 10 men after a foolish Giacomo Quagliata dismissal, but still threatened to win this relegation dogfight with Verona.
Spezia’s home defeat to Monza last night blew the relegation battle wide open and this was a head-to-head between two of the bottom three. Leonardo Sernicola and Marco Davide Faraoni sat out bans, with Frank Tsadjout, Ardian Hrustic and Thomas Henry injured.
Soualiho Meite stung Lorenzo Montipò’s gloves in the opening minutes with a ferocious strike that was going under the bar, but it was only a warning sign.
A cross-field pass seemed to surprise Fabio Depaoli, who made a mess of the control, effectively setting up David Okereke to then shake off Giangiacomo Magnani and open the scoring. It was the striker’s first Serie A goal since January.
Marco Carnesecchi’s save from point-blank range on Simone Verdi was futile due to handling offence, while Darko Lazovic nodded over the bar.
Montipò got down for a tricky save on Daniel Ciofani’s glancing header, while Magnani’s sudden snapshot from distance skimmed the crossbar.
Filip Djuric knocked it down for Verdi to set up Yayah Kallon, but Vasquez got back for a crucial interception.
Cremonese were in control, but substitute Giacomo Quagliata foolishly got himself sent off for a pointless lash out at Pawel Dawidowicz, which was spotted by the VAR.
Verona poured forward against 10 men, Carnesecchi tipping away a Darko Lazovic attempt and then denying Milan Djuric too.
Carnesecchi made a sensational reaction save on the Jayden Braaf header from point-blank range, but even he could do nothing on the Simone Verdi volley into the ground that bounced up and into the far top corner.
Braaf was offside and denied by another desperate Carnesecchi save anyway, while Dessers threatened to restore Cremonese’s lead with a header kept out by Montipò.
A powerful Buonaiuto screamer flashed just wide of the near post and Cremonese had penalty appeals late on for a potential Dawidowicz handball, but his arm was flush to the body on Buonaiuto’s header.
With the last kick of the game, more protests for Djuric’s challenge on Buonaiuto, but again the referee waved play on.
Cremonese 1-1 Verona
Okereke 8 (C), Verdi 75 (V)
Sent off: Quagliata 62 (C)
Match statistic
