Relegation stalemate

With Sampdoria and now also Cremonese already relegated, there were three teams battling to avoid being the third to go down, and these were two of them. The Salentini had a slender two-point lead over Spezia and Verona going into this weekend, but Lameck Banda was suspended with Morten Hjulmand and Kastriot Dermaku injured. The visitors were fresh from a shock victory over Milan, but Kelvin Amian sat out a ban with Mattia Caldara, Daniel Maldini, Jacopo Sala, Emil Holm, Joao Moutinho and Petar Zovko injured.

M’Bala Nzola drilled wide and Eldor Shomurodov had two pull-backs charged down by defensive bodies after running onto the Ethan Ampadu pass.

Remy Oudin whipped a ball across the face of goal, which Lorenzo Colombo just failed to get onto, and Samuel Umtiti risked more than a yellow card when bringing down Nzola running on goal. Gabriel Strefezza had two efforts charged down in quick succession, but Spezia wasted a huge opportunity to win on 77 minutes when a corner found Nzola at the back post, his free header only hitting the side-netting.

The first shot on target came from Strefezza moments later, a snapshot from outside the box with Bartlomiej Dragowski right behind it. Assan Ceesay also slipped at the crucial moment when ready to meet the Strefezza cross inside the area and Nzola fired wide with Umtiti narrowing the angle.