Hellas Verona beat Perugia 1-0 in the Coppa Italia on Tuesday evening.
It was an evenly matched contest with the Mastini progressing to the next round courtesy of a Javier Saviola penalty in the 17th minute.
Verona were awarded with a penalty after Javier Saviola was tripped in the Perugia area with 15 minutes gone and the same man stepped up to take the spot-kick and guide it into the bottom-right corner with Jan Koprivec diving the wrong way.
The visitors’s heads didn’t drop however and they continued to compete, but struggled to test Francesco Benussi in the Hellas goal.
Rafa Marquez came close with a free-kick that was tipped round the post well by Koprivec and they almost doubled the lead minutes later but Saviola thrashed wide.
Perugia looked dangerous just before half-time but Benussi did well to come out and push away a menacing cross.
Nene had a golden chance to score at the start of the second half after the ball ricocheted off Saviola’s face but blasted wide.
Things were made more difficult for Perugia seven minutes into the second-half as Guillermo Giacomazzi was sent off.
Perugia started to push forwards with 10 minutes to go but were unable to forge clear-cut chances.
Verona had a few chances missed by substitute Nico Lopez at the end but hung on for the win.
