Cyril Ngonge cancelled out the wonderful Pedro strike on the turn, as Verona stall Lazio’s progress and keep them in fourth place.
The Biancocelesti knew a victory here would catapult them into third place, just one point behind Inter, with only Stefan Radu on the treatment table and Felipe Anderson not fully fit. Hellas had lost just one of their last five, but Miguel Veloso, Pawel Dawidowicz, Thomas Henry, Ajdin Hrustic and Marco Davide Faraoni were injured.
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic saw his free kick graze a coat of paint off the near top corner, but Cyril Ngonge on his first start stung Ivan Provedel’s gloves, Josh Doig failing to keep the follow-up on target.
Ngonge drilled wide and Diego Coppola misplaced a free header from six yards, while Ciro Immobile fired past the near post from a very tricky angle on Milinkovic-Savic’s flick-on.
Immobile had a volley charged down and couldn’t quite prod the rebound past Lorenzo Montipò, but Provedel got down for a sensational fingertip save as Ngonge tried to flick on a Fabio Depaoli curler with his heel from six yards.
Pedro fired over after springing the offside trap on an Elseid Hysaj through ball, but he broke the deadlock with a moment of sheer magic on the stroke of half-time.
The former Chelsea man gathered with his back to goal just inside the penalty area, spun round and in one move swung the left-foot finish into the far top corner.
Verona equalised when Darko Lazovic whipped in a free kick from the left and Ngonge timed his run perfectly for a powerful header from seven yards, his first goal in only his second Serie A appearance.
It was almost 2-1 moments later, as Lazovic swung his right boot from the edge of the area and smashed the finish against the top of the far post.
Provedel then had to rush off his line and use his whole body to push the Doig chest and volley over the bar from point-blank range, while Adam Marusic made a fantastic sliding tackle on Kevin Lasagna in the box.
Adolfo Gaich made his Verona debut, Luis Alberto tested Montipò with a cross-shot at the near post, but deep into stoppages Zaccagni had the right idea with a cheeky back-heel flick, Montipo’ just getting one hand to it from six yards.
Verona 1-1 Lazio
Pedro 45 (L), Ngonge 51 (V)