Serie B: Play-out Final, First LegFriday 15 June 2007
Spezia 2-1 Verona (Stadio Alberto Picco, La Spezia)
Spezia have the advantage in the Serie B relegation play-out after fighting back to defeat Verona 2-1. Hellas went into the two-legged clash as the favourites to avoid the drop and dominated from the start despite playing away from home.
Sibilano gave them the lead after 23 minutes when goalkeeper Nicola Santoni misjudged Gorzegno’s cross from the right. However, Verona continued to create chances and wasted them horribly. Cutolo failed to hit the target when he was in front of an open goal, while Pulzetti’s effort was parried into the path of Ferrarese to miss the easy tap-in.
Da Silva had two shots from distance turned out for a corner, but all of these errors gave Spezia the opportunity to sneak in towards the end of a tense encounter.
The game turned at the 74th minute, when the referee pointed to the spot for Turati’s foul on Do Prado and Saverino converted the penalty.
The home side were fired up and kept pushing forward until Do Prado’s screamer from 30 metres gave Spezia a potentially decisive 2-1 lead going into the second leg at the Stadio Bentegodi next Thursday.
There was controversy in stoppages, as Verona felt they deserved a spot-kick for a handling offence on Iunco’s header and Coach Giampiero Ventura took his protests too far.
The winners of the two-legged play-out final survive in Serie B, while the losers go down to Serie C1.
Source: C4 Football Italia
No comments:
Post a Comment