The Empoli comeback was too little, too late, as Verona took all three points in this relegation dogfight thanks to Milan Djuric and Cyril Ngonge.
This was a huge clash between two of the bottom three going into the second half of the season. Hellas were still steaming after a chaotic and controversial defeat to Inter, which saw Thomas Henry’s last-gasp penalty saved, and started Josh Doig despite his imminent move to Olympique Marseille. Empoli missed Francesco Caputo, Tommaso Baldanzi, Viktor Kovalenko, Giuseppe Pezzella, Gabriele Guarino, Simone Bastoni and Tyronne Ebuehi, then lost Mattia Destro in the warm-up too.
It took under three minutes to break the deadlock, as an Ondrej Duda corner found the bullet header of Milan Djuric that thumped the underside of the crossbar and bounced back out, but not before crossing the line.
Empoli threatened an equaliser moments later, Stiven Shpendi pouncing on an error playing out from the back only for Giangiacomo Magnani to get just enough of a block to deflect it wide.
Cyril Ngonge’s cross-shot had to be fingertipped over the bar and a touched-on free kick was drilled inches past the post by Alberto Grassi.
On the stroke of half-time, Jackson Tchatchoua struggled to clear a splendid Nicolò Cambiaghi cross, risking an own goal.
After the restart, Serdar twisted and turned between defenders to force a save from Elia Caprile’s legs at the near post.
Verona doubled their lead when Ngonge cut inside and unleashed a left-foot scorcher from outside the box that took a deflection to wrong-foot Caprile at the near post.
Empoli got back into it with Szymon Zurkowski on his return from a spell at Spezia, getting on the end of Bartosz Bereszynski’s cross for a looping header into the far top corner. Fog also began to descend on the Stadio Bentegodi, making visibility difficult.
The visitors started to push, Lorenzo Montipò rushing off his line to stop Emmanuel Gyasi pouncing on an awkwardly bouncing ball, then on the resulting corner Gyasi struck the upright, with Alberto Grassi turning the rebound wide.
Verona ended the match with 10 men, as Duda received a rather harsh second yellow card for his clumsy challenge on Andrea Sodero. The siege continued and Sodero cross-shot deflected to test the goalkeeper at the near post, but Hellas held on.
Verona 2-1 Empoli
Djuric 3 (V), Ngonge 56 (V), Zurkowski 64 (E)
Sent off: Duda 87 (V)
Player statistic
| Milan Djuric (Assist: Ondrej Duda) |
 |
3' |
| Cyril Ngonge (Assist: Suat Serdar) |
|
56' | ||
| 58' |  |
Szymon Zurkowski | ||
| 64' | |
Szymon Zurkowski (Assist: Bartosz Bereszynski) | ||
| Ondrej Duda | |
69' | ||
| Diego Coppola | |
77' | ||
| 78' | |
Nicolò Cambiaghi | ||
| Jackson Tchatchoua | |
82' | ||
| Ondrej Duda |  |
87' | ||
| 90' | |
Matteo Cancellieri |
Match statistic
