Fiorentina’s faint Champions League hopes were all but extinguished as Mounir Obbadi secured a late 1-0 win for Verona at the Stadio Artemio Franchi last night.
The Viola, who remain nine points behind third-placed Roma having played their game in hand, controlled much of the match but failed to create enough chances.
Their best chance came on 65 minutes when they were awarded a penalty for a foul on Alberto Gilardino by Verona keeper Rafael.
It was a soft backwards header from Jankovic that created the danger, forcing Rafael to race out and challenge the Viola forward.
The Verona keeper was perhaps fortunate Gilardino was angling his run away from goal, meaning the card that came out of the referee’s pocket was yellow, not red.
Up stepped Alessandro Diamanti, but Rafael got down brilliantly to his left to deny the 31-year-old.
That proved costly as Verona gradually grew in stature as Fiorentina ran out of ideas and they deservedly took a valuable three points when Obbadi was on hand to toe-poke home when Neto failed to gather Lazaros Christodoulopoulos’ driven effort in the final minute.
Verona are now seven points clear of the drop zone and up to 14th, with Serie A survival looking pretty secure.
Next fixtures
Saturday: 18.00 Udinese vs Milan; 20.45 Inter vs Roma.
Sunday: 12.30 Atalanta vs Empoli. 15.00 Genoa vs Cesena; Verona vs Sassuolo; Lazio vs Chievo; Parma vs Palermo; Torino vs Juve. 18.00 Fio-rentina vs Cagliari. 20.45 Napoli vs Sampdoria.
Standings
P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
Juventus | 31 | 22 | 7 | 2 | 59 | 15 | 73 |
Lazio | 31 | 18 | 4 | 9 | 58 | 30 | 58 |
Roma | 31 | 15 | 13 | 3 | 42 | 23 | 58 |
Napoli | 31 | 15 | 8 | 8 | 53 | 37 | 53 |
Sampdoria | 31 | 12 | 14 | 5 | 38 | 31 | 50 |
Fiorentina | 31 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 43 | 35 | 49 |
Genoa | 31 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 43 | 36 | 44 |
Torino | 31 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 36 | 33 | 44 |
Milan | 31 | 10 | 13 | 8 | 44 | 37 | 43 |
Inter | 31 | 10 | 12 | 9 | 46 | 37 | 42 |
Palermo | 31 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 44 | 45 | 41 |
Sassuolo | 31 | 8 | 12 | 11 | 37 | 46 | 36 |
Chievo | 31 | 9 | 9 | 13 | 23 | 32 | 36 |
Verona | 31 | 9 | 9 | 13 | 37 | 54 | 36 |
Udinese | 31 | 8 | 11 | 12 | 34 | 42 | 35 |
Empoli | 31 | 6 | 16 | 9 | 32 | 38 | 34 |
Atalanta | 31 | 6 | 12 | 13 | 27 | 42 | 30 |
Cesena | 31 | 4 | 11 | 16 | 28 | 53 | 23 |
Cagliari | 31 | 4 | 9 | 18 | 35 | 61 | 21 |
Parma (-7) | 31 | 5 | 5 | 21 | 26 | 58 | 13 |