Giovanni Simeone ended his goal drought in style with a hat-trick, as Hellas Verona beat Venezia 3-1 in the local derby.

Watch the highlights here.

Serie A Highlights: Verona 3-1 Venezia

When these sides faced off in December, Hellas came back from 3-0 down at half-time to win 4-3. Koray Gunter and Nicolò Casale sat out bans for Verona, with Miguel Veloso, Matteo Cancellieri and Pawel Dawidowicz among the absentees. The Lagunari missed Luca Lezzerini, Tyronne Ebuehi, Sofian Kiyine and Arnor Sigurdsson, but Gianluca Busio and David Okereke were back from suspension.

It was the worst possible start for Verona, because Panagiotis Retsos went off with a groin strain within minutes of his first start.

Ridgeciano Haps saw his impressive volley palmed away, then Darko Lazovic needed a goal-line clearance to stop Okereke’s header from a corner putting Venezia in front.

Serie A Liveblog: Torino-Cagliari, Verona-Venezia, Spezia-Roma, Lazio-Napoli

Venezia were dangerous from set plays, a Pietro Ceccaroni attempt parried and Mattia Caldara header over as he mistimed the jump.

Ivan Ilic drilled not far wide from distance and Gianluca Caprari stung Sergio Romero’s gloves following a strong Marco Davide Faraoni run.

Verona broke through when Simeone robbed Caldara down the left flank and curled into the far bottom corner with the inside of his right boot.

Cholito Simeone well and truly broke his duck, adding a second with a finish deflected off Gianluca Busio after a great run and slide-rule pass from Faraoni.

Sergio Romero made unorthodox saves to prevent Darko Lazovic and Kevin Lasagna scoring another moments later.

Venezia set up a tense finale with Okereke’s free header on a Dennis Johnsen cross, getting in front of Faraoni from six yards.

However, Simeone completed his hat-trick by thumping in at the near post, sent clear by a strong Lasagna run and slide-rule pass.

Verona 3-1 Venezia

Simeone 54, 63, 88 (Ver), Okereke 81 (Ven)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Tickets Kit Collector