Boulaye Dia came off the bench to rescue a last-gasp win for Salernitana that drags them out of the danger zone and sent Verona to a fourth straight defeat.
Both sides were coming off bad results, the hosts crushed 5-0 and without a win in five, while Hellas had lost three on the bounce. Franck Ribery and Emil Bohinen were still injured, with Boulaye Dia not 100 per cent fit. Ivan Ilic and Diego Coppola didn’t make the trip.
The hosts were very unlucky, as after losing Matteo Lovato in the warm-up, Giulio Maggiore also limped off after nine minutes.
Luigi Sepe rushed off his line to deny Fabio Depaoli, but Salernitana took the lead when Krzysztof Piatek flicked on a long ball and got back to the Federico Bonazzoli return pass, surging past two defenders to beat the goalkeeper.
Koray Gunter thought he’d equalised from a corner kick, but the Verona defender’s effort thumped the crossbar.
Verona equalised after the restart when the Salernitana defenders just stood watching a Josh Doig cross from the left go all the way across the face of goal and allowed Depaoli a free header at the back post.
The referee awarded a penalty for Ivan Radovanovic’s handball, but that was revoked after a VAR review because it seemed to hit his stomach.
Simone Verdi unleashed a powerful finish from the edge of the box that thumped the upright for Verona, while Salernitana were also unlucky when Antonio Candreva got in the way of Radovanovic’s strike.
Just as coach Davide Nicola was considering the very real possibility he would be fired, Boulaye Dia came off the bench and snatched a last-gasp win, firing in left-footed from an Eric Botheim lay-off, to spark wild celebrations at the Stadio Arechi.
Some went too far and there was a pitch invasion, sparking a touchline brawl, leading to red cards for Radovanovic and already-substituted Verona defender Federico Ceccherini.
Salernitana 2-1 Verona
Piatek 18 (S), Depaoli 56 (V), Dia 94 (S)
Sent off: Ceccherini 96 (V), Radovanovic 96 (S)