Hellas Verona came out on top of tonight’s relegation playoff, winning 3-1 over Spezia—who were officially sent down to Serie B.
In what was the first relegation playoff in nearly twenty years, the two sides treated spectators to an entertaining match with all four goals being scored in the first half.
Verona struck early after captain Davide Faraoni fired the ball past Bartlomiej Dragowski to give his side an early 1-0 lead. However, it didn’t take long for Spezia to respond as Ethan Ampadu equalised when his strike took a deflection and ended up into the back of the net.
But less than ten minutes later, Cyril Ngoge scored the first of his two goals before adding the second just before halftime.
“We’re very happy,” manager Marco Zaffaroni said in his post-match press conference.
“The team always believed in themselves and we had strength to never give up. Everyone from the technical staff, Bocchetti, physiotherapists to the warehouse workers: they all contributed to this goal.”
“This is such a huge joy, this is the culmination of a very complicated season but thankfully we can put that in the rearview mirror now.”
