A classy Mattia Zaccagni backheel flick was not enough, as Thomas Henry allowed 10-man Verona to hold Lazio in a fiery 1-1 draw.
The Aquile had won three in a row in all competitions, but remained ninth in Serie A after scraping a 1-0 victory over 10-man Cagliari. Gustav Isaksen and Patric joined Alessio Romagnoli on the absentee list, but Luis Alberto, Mattia Zaccagni and Nicolò Casale returned. Hellas were without a win since Week 2, but coming off a pair of back-to-back high-scoring draws. Isak Hien was available again, unlike Marco Davide Faraoni, Pawel Dawidowicz, Giangiacomo Magnani and Jayden Braaf.
The deadlock was broken by a spectacular move, as Manuel Lazzari sent Felipe Anderson down the right, he rolled across for the cheeky Zaccagni back-heel flick from six yards at the near post. The former Verona player waved an apology to the local fans and refused to celebrate.
Adam Marusic struggled for a while with a left eye issue after a collision with Cyril Ngonge and eventually had to come off.
Ngonge saw a header charged down from a corner, then Milan Djuric at full stretch just failed to get on the end of a wayward Michael Folorunsho effort.
Mario Gila had a free header on the Luis Alberto corner, only to turn it wide, while Diego Coppola made a decisive interception to prevent Luis Alberto sending Ciro Immobile clear on goal.
Thomas Henry on the counter, Felipe Anderson on a Zaccagni pull-back and Immobile after a ball over the top really should’ve done better than scuffed finishes.
Those errors proved costly, as Verona equalised in chaotic fashion. Ngonge’s wayward cross turned into a lob that Ivan Provedel flapped out from the far top corner, the follow-up Suslov finish accidentally turned into an assist that Henry bundled over the line with his stomach.
Lazio thought they had restored their advantage minutes later when Nicolò Casale was allowed a free header on a corner. However, it was disallowed for his shove on Ondrej Duda.
Verona then went down to 10 men, as Duda had been risking a second yellow for a while when he bundled into Taty Castellanos on the counter-attack.
Lorenzo Montipò fingertipped a Luis Alberto strike round the near post and Matias Vecino saw his effort deflected over by teammate Castellanos.
Verona 1-1 Lazio
Zaccagni 23 (L), Henry 70 (V)
Sent off: Duda 77 (V)
Player statistic
Ondrej Duda | 15' | |||
23' | Mattia Zaccagni (Assist: Felipe Anderson) | |||
24' | Adam Marusic |
63' | Elseid Hysaj | |||
Thomas Henry (Assist: Tomas Suslov) |
70' | |||
Ondrej Duda | 77' | |||
82' | Felipe Anderson | |||
90+5' | Pedro |