Hellas Verona ran out as comfortable 1-0 winners as they welcomed fellow strugglers Atalanta to the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi on Sunday afternoon.
Javier Saviola scored what proved to be the decisive goal early in the second half, and were it not for the exploits of Marco Sportiello in the Atalanta goal, it could have been a lot worse for Stefano Colantuono’s men.
It was the hosts who started the stronger as they looked to get the ball into the box at any opportunity early on. The first shot, however, came from Atalanta through Mauricio Pinilla as he found space at the edge of the box after some good movement but mishit his volley which tamely trickled toward goal.
Verona continued to dominate the early stages as they outnumbered La Dea in the midfield. They had their first attempt through Lazaros Christodoulopoulos who headed well wide of Marco Sportiello’s goal.
Moments later Pinilla was sent crashing to the floor after being hit in the face by the shoulder of Frederick Sorensen. The Danish defender was lucky to have escaped the incident with just a yellow card.
The first clear-cut chance came after 25 minutes. A good piece of improvisation from Panagiotis Tachtsidis resulted in an overhead-kick cross, which found Javier Saviola in the centre of goal. The Argentine’s downward header tested the reflexes of Sportiello, who excellently turned the ball away with his feet.
Pinilla continued to be at the centre of every attack for the Nerazzurri and came awfully close just after the half hour mark. A loose ball was knocked down to the Chilean on the edge of the box and his overhead kick fired narrowly wide of Francesco Benussi’s goal.
Verona made their dominance pay early in the second half. Some good Christodoulopoulos play on the right result in a low near-post cross, which found the Saviola free who guided the ball beyond Sportiello for his first Serie A goal.
Veteran striker Luca Toni came close to doubling Verona’s lead on the hour mark, but his glancing back-heel was saved well by Sportiello.
The game progressed without too many more clear chances for either side, Giuseppe Biava did have a good chance in the dying moments to draw his side level but he headed wide when he really should have done better.
