It was a nightmare afternoon for decimated Spezia, who lost 4-0 to Hellas Verona including a spectacular Gianluca Caprari curler, and saw Simone Bastoni sent off.
Hellas were still missing Gianluca Frabotta, but Miguel Veloso and Kevin Ruegg were back on the bench. Spezia’s injury crisis intensified, travelling without Giulio Maggiore, Kevin Agudelo, Ebrima Colley, Leo Sena, Jacopo Sala, Martin Erlic, Arkadiusz Reca and Victor Kovalenko.
It took just four minutes to break the deadlock, a corner taken short for Ilic, whose cross found Giovanni Simeone for a free header at the back post.
Montipò had to fingertip a Daniele Verde dipping strike over the bar, but Verona doubled their lead when Marco Davide Faraoni seemed set to square it for Simeone, instead steering a snooker shot into the far bottom corner to surprise everyone.
Moments later, Spezia really should’ve scored, but Rey Manaj saw his header bounce off the crossbar, then balloon the follow-up over.
Manaj did better when forcing a save at the near post on another Verde assist, but Verona were far more clinical and went 3-0 up before half-time.
Gianluca Caprari took it first time from the D, swinging his right boot to send the curler into the far top corner.
Verde was the last to give in, his free kick kept out by Montipò, but Daniel Bessa added a fourth on the counter, using other options as decoys to just drill into the near bottom corner.
It went from bad to worse for Spezia, as Simone Bastoni was harshly shown a straight red card for nudging an elbow into the ribs of Ilic.
Verona 4-0 Spezia
Simeone 4 (V), Faraoni 15 (V), Caprari 42 (V), Bessa 71 (V)
Sent off: Bastoni 81 (S)