Serie A

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·5 May 2024

Serie A | Verona 2-1 Fiorentina: Hellas in Heaven

Verona took a giant leap towards Serie A safety by pouncing on Fiorentina defensive errors with Darko Lazovic and Tijjani Noslin goals.

Hellas went into the weekend alongside Frosinone and Empoli on 31 points, just two clear of the relegation zone. Juan Cabal was suspended, with Juan Manuel Cruz injured. The Viola were coming off Thursday’s dramatic 3-2 Conference League semi-final win over Club Brugge, where they lost Riccardo Sottil for the season to a fractured clavicle. As the second leg is on Wednesday, Vincenzo Italiano had to rotate the squad.

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Fiorentina gifted the opener to Hellas, as a long ball seemed to be perfectly under control, but Oliver Christensen failed to gather as Luca Ranieri shepherded it back, prompting the goalkeeper to bring down Tijjani Noslin instead. Darko Lazovic smashed the penalty into the roof of the net.

It was almost 2-0 moments later, Federico Bonazzoli sliding in to turn wide on the counter, while Gaetano Castrovilli was unlucky to see his daisy-cutter from distance thump the base of the upright.

Bonazzoli was again wasteful, side-footing straight into the arms of Christensen, and Fiorentina got their equaliser with Castrovilli.

The midfielder was out of action for almost a full year due to knee injuries that required several operations, but marked his return with a goal. M’Bala Nzola rolled it across, Castrovilli rode a tackle to get down the left and place a left-foot angled drive into the far bottom corner. It was his first goal since May 14, 2023.

Verona restored their advantage when a cross from the right was only cleared by Nikola Milenkovic as far as Noslin to smash in a ferocious finish from 14 yards. Fiorentina were furious, as they felt Lazovic touched the cross with his arm, but VAR found no conclusive evidence there was contact.

Giacomo Bonaventura’s shot was charged down and M’Bala Nzola really should’ve scored on 83 minutes when ballooning a volley over the bar from a flicked-on corner.

Andrea Belotti had penalty appeals in stoppages, but the offside flag was up on the Christian Kouame knockdown, so the Verona foul was irrelevant.