Serie A | Parma 2-1 Verona: Siege eventually breaks 10 men

Verona heroically held out down to 10 men for most of the match, but capitulated in added time to a Mateo Pellegrino header for Parma’s second consecutive victory.

The Ducali clambered away from the danger zone with their surprise victory away to Bologna, but Mariano Troilo was suspended, with Nahuel Estevez, Zion Suzuki, Pontus Almqvist, Abdoulaye Ndiaye and Matija Frigan still injured. Hellas remained rock bottom after new coach Paolo Sammarco debuted with a 0-0 draw against Pisa. Armal Bella-Kotchap returned and Kieron Bowie got his first start, though Antoine Bernede, Toma Suslov, Roberto Gagliardini, Sandi Lovric, Pol Lirola and Nicolas Valentini missed out.

See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.

It took just over three minutes to break the deadlock, as Mandela Keita intercepted a wayward pass out from the back and gave it to Adrian Bernabé, who flicked it up with his first touch to smash in on the half-volley from 20 metres out.

The game went from bad to worse for Verona, as striker Gift Orban had a foul go against him, turned to scream something that the referee evidently was offended by, as he immediately whipped out a red card.

Moments later, Rafik Belghali limped off with an injury, further adding to the Hellas problems.

Gabriel Strefezza tried to score directly from the corner flag, forcing a tricky save out of Lorenzo Montipò, who also flew to push the Sascha Britschgi volley out from under the bar.

Lautaro Valenti drilled just wide, but 10-man Verona won a penalty when Bowie in his first start had a sensational take to control the ball over the top and turn, wrestled to the ground by Alessandro Circati. Abdoui Harroui converted for his first goal since the anterior cruciate ligament tear last year.

There was an odd moment after the restart when referee Luca Pairetto hurt his eye during an accidental collision with Niasse, but was able to continue.

Bowie thought he had won another penalty when surging into the box, but this time Keita managed to get his toes to the ball first.

Jacob Ondrejka’s curler skimmed the upright and Strefezza volleyed just over on a corner, but the huge chance on 71 minutes saw Strefezza’s right-foot curler loop around the goalkeeper to smack against the crossbar. As the move continued, Montipò parried an Ondrejka effort with his legs.

Pellegrino couldn’t keep his header on target from six yards, but it turned into a Parma siege during the closing stages. Ondrejka’s effort was palmed away until a Gaetano Oristanio acrobatic volley over, then Bernabé saw his shot deflected inches past the near post.

Verona finally capitulated in stoppages when Hans Nicolussi Caviglia floated a ball over the top for Pellegrino’s precise header.

Parma 2-1 Verona

Bernabé 4 (P), Harroui pen 43 (V), Pellegrino 93 (P)

Sent off: Orban 11 (V)