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

Originally posted on Football Italia | By Susy Campanale | Last updated May 25, 2025 5:07 PM ET

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)

25-05-2025 19:45 MatchDay 38 Stadio Comunale Carlo Castellani

Empoli

Verona 1 - 2

Player statistic

1st half

	4'	Suat Serdar (Assist: Ondrej Duda)
Ardian Ismajli	19'
	37'	Nicolás Valentini
Jacopo Fazzini	43'

2nd half

69'

Domagoj Bradaric (Assist: Jackson Tchatchoua) Ola Solbakken 90+7' 90+2'

Daniel Mosquera

Match statistic

70 Possession % 30 14 Total shots 5 5 Shots on target 2 5 Shots off target 1 4 Blocked shots 2 13 Corners 1 1 Offsides 1 10 Fouls 29 Empoli Verona

Starting lineups

Devis Vásquez Goalkeeper 34

Ardian Ismajli Defender 3

Giuseppe Pezzella Defender 13 Liberato Cacace Defender 60' 21 Mattia Viti Defender 2 Saba Goglichidze Defender 82' 5

Alberto Grassi Midfielder 10 Jacopo Fazzini Midfielder 6

Liam Henderson Midfielder 60' 11 Emmanuel Gyasi Attacker 74' 99 Sebastiano Esposito Attacker 82' 34 Simone Perilli Goalkeeper 87 Daniele Ghilardi Defender 42 Diego Coppola Defender 12

Domagoj Bradaric Defender 82' 6 Nicolás Valentini Defender 27

Pawel Dawidowicz Defender 33

Ondrej Duda Midfielder 25

Suat Serdar Midfielder 81' 9 Amin Sarr Attacker 60' 38 Jackson Tchatchoua Attacker 31

Tomas Suslov Attacker

60'

Substitutes

Marco Silvestri Goalkeeper 22

Mattia De Sciglio Defender

Viktor Kovalenko Midfielder 24

Tyronne Ebuehi Defender 98

Federico Brancolini Goalkeeper 12 Jacopo Seghetti Goalkeeper 36 Jacopo Bacci Midfielder 35 Luca Marianucci Defender 31 Lorenzo Tosto Defender 29 Lorenzo Colombo Attacker 60' 8

Tino Anjorin Midfielder 60' 17 Ola Solbakken Attacker 74' 7

Junior Sambia Defender 82' 90 Ismael Konate Attacker 82' 8

Darko Lazovic Midfielder 5

Davide Faraoni Defender 22

Alessandro Berardi Goalkeeper 20

Grigoris Kastanos Midfielder 10

Cheikh Niasse Attacker 4 Flavius Daniliuc Defender 98 Federico Magro Goalkeeper 11 Casper Tengstedt Attacker 80 Alphadjo Cissè Attacker 72 Junior Ajayi Attacker Tobias Slotsager Defender 35 Daniel Mosquera Attacker 60' 14

Dailon Rocha Livramento Attacker 60' 24

Antoine Bernede Midfielder 81' 3

Martin Frese Defender

82'

This article first appeared on Football Italia and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: