Serie A | Empoli 1-2 Verona: Hellas doom poor Tuscans to Serie B

Empoli failed to get the result they needed, as Hellas Verona secured safety and sent the Tuscans down to Serie B along with Venezia and Monza.

Going into the final round, there were still five teams and only two remaining relegation spots along with Monza. Much of it would be decided at the Stadio Castellani, where the hosts were missing Youssouf Maleh, Christian Kouame, Saba Sazonov, Nicolas Haas, Pietro Pellegri and Szymon Zurkowski after back-to-back wins over Parma and Monza. Hellas had seemed safe a few weeks ago, but were without a victory in eight rounds, and lost goalkeeper Lorenzo Montipò to a muscular problem.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

It was Hellas who broke the deadlock in the first five minutes, as a throw-in was flicked on by Amine Sarr and Ondrej Duda for Suat Serdar to smash in with the outside of the right boot from the edge of the area.

Jacopo Fazzini fought back with an effort deflected wide, while Liam Henderson’s snapshot was pushed over the bar.

Sebastiano Esposito curled a free kick over, then Perilli made a diving save to keep out Fazzini from the edge of the area.

Perilli had also managed to parry the Esposito header, but could do nothing on the Fazzini follow-up from close range to draw Empoli level.

There were appeals for a red card when Fazzini got into a scuffle with Pawel Dawidowicz in an off the ball incident, but VAR evaluated and saw insufficient reason to recall the referee.

Verona restored their advantage, as Jackson Tchatchoua whipped a perfect cross to the back post for his fellow wing-back Domagoj Bradaric’s powerful header.

Ondrej Duda’s scorcher skimmed the upright from a huge distance, while Fazzini’s free kick was inches wide.

Empoli 1-2 Verona

Serdar 4 (V), Fazzini 43 (E), Bradaric 69 (V)

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