Salernitana earned a shock 2-1 victory away to Hellas Verona, with two teams badly depleted by COVID cases, but there is controversy over the penalty.
Both sides were decimated by COVID cases, which had seen Salernitana forced to abandon their last two games due to quarantine orders. Despite nine absentees, Hellas still managed to beat Spezia on Thursday and gave Fabio Depaoli his debut.
Giovanni Simeone’s header was deflected wide in the opening minutes, while Ivan Ilic forced a save with his snapshot from distance.
However, Salernitana took the lead when Koray Gunter collided with Cedric Gondo and the referee somewhat controversially considered it to be a penalty. Milan Djuric slipped on the spot, but still managed to fire it into the net.
Salernitana threatened a second, Gondo’s towering header well saved by Ivor Pandur, while Zortea fired over after surprising defenders.
Verona got their equaliser when Miguel Veloso set up Darko Lazovic to score from the tightest of angles.
Grigoris Kastanos restored the visitors’ lead with a fantastic free kick into the near top corner, giving Pandur no chance.
Nikola Kalinic’s back-heel flick on another Veloso assist was just wide, then desperate Riccardo Gagliolo defending prevented an Antonin Barak tap-in from six yards.
The tension got to Ilic, who was shown a red card for saying something to the referee.
Verona 1-2 Salernitana
Djuric pen 29 (S), Lazovic 63 (V), Kastanos 70 (S)
Sent off: Ilic 89 (V)
some of the worst calls from that referee