Darko Lazovic brought Verona their first win since September on Monday with his first-half brace in a 2-0 home victory over fellow strugglers Cremonese.Verona snapped a 10-match losing streak with last Wednesday’s draw at Torino and finally secured three points against a Cremonese team who are still winless after 17 games of their first top-flight campaign since 1996.Lazovic struck with two neat finishes in the ninth and 26th minutes at the Stadio Bentegodi to continue a post-Christmas revival under new coach Marco Zaffaroni.
Verona are unbeaten in his two games in charge but Serie A safety will be a battle as they sit in the relegation zone on nine points, six behind 17th-placed Spezia. Cremonese are two points behind Verona and Sampdoria in last place following their 10th defeat of the campaign.
The away side did their pre-match warm-up wearing a T-shirt bearing an image of former Italy striker Gianluca Vialli, who died on Friday of pancreatic cancer at the age of 58. He started his career at his hometown club Cremonese before going on to greater success at Sampdoria, Juventus and Chelsea. While the match was being played, back in Cremona Vialli’s family, friends and some famous faces from his playing days gathered for a mass in his honour.Cremonese will wear this sleeve patch in tomorrow’s match at VeronaThe shirts will then be auctioned with proceeds going to the cancer/ALS research charity that Luca helped to found#Vialli #LV9 #GianlucaVialli #RipGianlucaVialli #Cremonese pic.twitter.com/R2Lq9X0lih— Calcio England (@CalcioEngland) January 8, 2023 Fans who didn’t make the trip to Verona stood outside the Cristo Re church in Cremona to pay their respects. Vialli’s funeral will be a small private affair in London, where he lived after signing for Chelsea in 1996 until his death.© Agence France-PresseSERIE A – Round 17SaturdayFiorentina – Sassuolo 2-1 (0-0)/Saponara 48, Gonzalez 90+1 pen – Berardi 57 pen/Juventus – Udinese 1-0 (0-0)/Danilo 86/Monza – Inter 2-2 (1-2)/Ciurria 11, Caldirola 90+3 – Darmian 10, Lautaro 22/SundaySalernitana – Torino 1-1 (0-1)/Vilhena 49 – Sanabria 36/Lazio – Empoli 2-2 (1-0)/Anderson 2, Zaccagni 54 – Caputo 83, Marin 90+4/Spezia – Lecce 0-0Sampdoria – Napoli 0-2 (0-1)/Osimhen 19, Elmas 82 pen/AC Milan – AS Roma 2-1 (1-0)/Kalulu 30, Pobega 77 – Ibanez 87/MondayHellas Verona – Cremonese 2-0 (2-0)/Lazovic 9, 26/Bologna – Atalanta x-x (x-x)/Orsolini 6/