Empoli had the worst possible start to this game, down to 10 men and trailing by two goals, but completed the comeback in stoppages to hold Spezia in a 2-2 thriller.
The hosts had taken themselves to relative mid-table comfort, despite the six-round unbeaten run ending with a 2-0 defeat to Roma, while Lorenzo Tonelli, Mattia Destro and Alberto Grassi were still injured. Spezia, on the other hand, were sliding down the standings after three consecutive defeats. Ethan Ampadu and Mattia Caldara sat out bans, with Simone Bastoni, Viktor Kovalenko, Szymon Zurkowski, Jacopo Sala, Jeroen Zoet and Joao Moutinho out of action, but Emanuel Gyasi returned from his ban and M’Bala Nzola was back too.
There was a huge chance on 19 minutes when a Spezia corner swung in from Daniele Verde and took a glancing deflection off the head of Wisniewski, cleared off the line by Fabiano Parisi’s hand. VAR inevitably had to intervene and the referee assign both a penalty and a red card, as it was an instinctive, but foolish gesture.
Guglielmo Vicario already went viral last week for an astonishing triple save against Roma and did it again this time, parrying both the Verde penalty and the same player’s follow-up with cat-like reflexes. However, VAR ruled the penalty had to be retaken for encroachment, and on this occasion Verde did just about manage to beat Vicario.
There was nothing Vicario could do on Verde’s second goal, an absolute screamer into the far top corner from distance that dipped viciously at the last moment. Verde had not scored since May 2022 and gladly took the yellow card for over-celebrating.
Nonetheless, 10-man Empoli could’ve scored on the stroke of half-time, a corner taking a glancing deflection until Arkadiusz Reca cleared off the line.
Straight after the restart, Salvatore Esposito received a rather harsh second yellow card for a coming together with Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro, so Spezia also went down to 10 men.
A series of Empoli shots were charged down for Razvan Marin and Akpa Akpro, while Kelvin Amian used his body to stop Francesco Caputo turning from six yards.
Bartlomiej Dragowski was at full stretch to fingertip a looping Ciccio Caputo header out from under the crossbar on a corner, while Amian on the counter drilled just wide of the open goal.
Empoli did get one back when Wisniewski was caught napping by Caputo, who pulled back from the left by-line for Nicolò Cambiaghi to fire in from seven yards.
The hosts continued to pour forward, including a Roberto Piccoli curler that tested the goalkeeper and Cambiaghi penalty appeals for going down too easily under pressure from Medhi Bourabia.
Both teams threatened late on, including an Eldor Shomurodov strike wide, and Empoli got the last-gasp equaliser with debutant Emanuel Vignato. Several attempts were charged down or not cleared, so Vignato smashed in from just inside the box into the far bottom corner with a right-foot screamer.
The hosts even tried to win it when Cacace tested the goalkeeper with an angled drive.
Empoli 2-2 Spezia
Verde pen 25, 31 (S), Cambiaghi 71 (E), Vignato 94 (E)
Sent off: Parisi 21 (E), Esposito 49 (S)
Click here for the full line-ups and statistics.