Hellas Verona 2-1 Palermo: Gialloblu sink the Sicilians

Date: 15th September 2014 at 10:53pm
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Hellas Verona defeated their opponents Palermo 2-1 at the Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi in their second Serie A matchday.

The goals came from Franco Vazquez and Luca Toni in the first half, with Juanito Gomez ensuring that the home side took all three points.

The first oppurtunity came from Palermo, through Paulo Dybala looking to get his second goal of the season with an attempt from outside the box. Rafael needed two attempts at it, but reacted well enough to secure the ball. Minutes later Palermo had won a corner. The ball in didn’t pose any real threat initially, but Fabio Daprela had a penalty shout from a challenge by Ivan Martic, which referee Gianluca Rocchi ignored.

Despite their frustration, Palermo weren’t left disgruntled for too long. A tantalising ball in was blocked by Rafael, but the rebound was tapped in by Franco Vazquez who had joined the queue at the near post. Verona looked to restore parity with an early ball in for Juanito, but the Argentinian blasted his effort over the bar. Seconds later it was the evergreen Luca Toni who came close, stretching to meet Emil Hallfredsson’s cross, but the striker couldn’t angle his shot on target.

Palermo looked very unconvincing from set-pieces. Zouhair Feddal received a yellow card for bringing down Juanito, and the resultant free kick saw Vangelis Moras very nearly score, with Feddal causing him all sorts of problems in the box. From the next set-piece, defender Sinisa Andelkovic brought down Toni in the box, resulting in a penalty. The 37 year-old, stepped up, and sent Stefano Sorrentino the wrong way to level the scores just before halftime.

After the break, the game slowed down as both sides sized each other up. Palermo captain Edgar Barreto came close to heading his side in front, but Rafael was equal to it. At the other end, Toni wrestled his way through the defense and looked to have been brought down in the box, but the referee was unmoved. Verona piled on the pressure, Juanito nearly catching Sorrentino off guard at his near post, but the former Chievo Verona shot-stopper parried away to safety.

As the game looked to be heading for a draw, a defensive mix-up allowed Juanito Gomez to seal Verona’s first win of the season. The centre-backs were left scrambling on the floor as the 29 year-old ghosted in and helped bundle the ball over the line. A tense finish saw Rafael called into some desperate saves, and substitute Nico Lopez could have made it 3-1, but Sorrentino stretched to make the save.

Andrea Mandorlini’s team looked the sturdier of the two teams, but may have been overly reliant on Luca Toni and missing the speed of Juan Manuel Iturbe. Giuseppe Iachini may need to change his tactics if his side want to stay up this season.

Follow Louis Gibberd-Thomas on Twitter: @mercutio156

 

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