Mota stars as Monza stun Verona to notch first Serie A win
These two sides played out a goalless draw when they last met in February, but Mota took just 10 minutes to ensure there would be no repeat, breaking the deadlock in fine style.
With the patience of a saint and the vision of a hawk, he watched Gianluca Caprari’s raking pass travel all of 30 yards before thumping it home on the volley.
Verona’s response was muted to say the least, but they did work a sighting of goal midway through the first half when Daniele Ghilardi’s downward header forced a smart save out of Stefano Turati.
The hosts’ best chance of the half was conjured up out of nothing by Casper Tengstedt. Squared up by two defenders on the byline, the Dane burst past the pair, and from the tightest of angles, he flashed an effort across the face of goal.
Verona carried that momentum into the restart too, and tested Turati again when Darko Lazovic stung his palms within a minute of the second half.
An even bigger chance fell the way of Giangiacomo Magnani just moments later too, but he could only power a header over the crossbar despite being left unmarked in the area.
In pushing for a leveller, Verona were almost caught cold, and if the first goal was a stunner, Giorgos Kyriakopoulos’ effort would have been something else altogether, had it gone in rather than crashing back off the crossbar.
Monza endured some uncomfortable moments too though - perhaps no more so than when Pablo Mari threw himself in front of Suat Serdar’s effort to deny what was a certain goal.
His heroics allowed Monza to continue to play on the break, and they duly doubled their advantage a little over 15 minutes from time, when Milan Duric freed Mota in behind and coolly dispatched his second goal of the evening to all but end the tie as a contest.
If the match wasn’t dead at that point, it certainly was at 3-0, when a defensive mix-up allowed Alessandro Bianco to sneak in and poke home Monza’s third of a successful evening.
Knowing their first win of the season was assured, Monza eased off their battered hosts, seeing out the remaining minutes to lift themselves out of the relegation zone
Flashscore Man of the Match: Dany Mota (AC Monza)
