Hellas Verona and Cesena drew 3-3 at the Stadio Bentegodi on Saturday afternoon in Serie A.
Verona were enjoying a three-goal lead in the second half, thanks to a sensational Luca Toni brace and Juanito Gomez; but the visitors fought back thanks to goals from Carlos Carbonero, Franco Brienza and Davide Succi to rescue a point.
Cesena came close in the 2nd minute after Gregoire Defrel found some space on the counter-attack, and although the French winger was forced out wide, he was still able to hit the post from a narrow angle.
Toni opened the scoring for the Gialloblu a minute later after Bosko Jankovic played a square ball across the face of goal from the right wing, leaving the striker to simply tap-in from close range.
Jacopo Sala stung the palms of Nicola Leali in the 21st minute, after Juanito Gomez had laid the ball off to the edge of the area, but the shot was too central to beat the Cesena goalkeeper.
Gomez doubled Verona’s lead in the 30th minute with a lovely curling effort from outside the area that flew into the top right hand corner and left Leali motionless.
Verona continued to look dangerous on the counter-attack and Toni carried on making a nuisance of himself in the air.
Verona thought they had made it 3-0 after Jankovic fired in a low half-volley on the 45th minute, but the referee disallowed the goal for a foul in the built-up play. The home side thus went into the break 2-0 up.
Cesena played some neat football at the start of the second half but were unable to create real chances to test Francesco Benussi in the Verona goal.
The away side found some space in the Verona area after cute free-kick routine but Daniele Capelli was unable to connect on the volley.
The away side went close in the 59th minute when a shot from substitute Carlos Carbonero was deflected into the side netting.
In the 62nd minute Toni contorted his body to reach a Jankovic cross played behind him, and blasted it into the roof of the net with a spectacular volley.
Cesena got one back in the 70th minute however, with a great first-time strike from the edge of the area by Carbonero.
Minutes after, Cesena got another one thanks to Franco Briezna’s stunning free kick in the 75th minute.
The Cavalucci Marini completed their incredible comeback in the 81st minute when Davide Succi got to a through ball in the area before Evangelos Moras, poking past Benussi and into the bottom left corner.
The shocked Scaligeri tried to press forwards and restore their lead but Cesena defended solidly to hang on for a hard-fought point.
