MILAN: Empoli earned their first win since January when they beat fellow struggler Lecce 1-0 in Serie A yesterday.  Francesco Caputo converted a 62nd-minute penalty kick to end a four-match losing run and lift Empoli 12 points above the bottom three. Lecce were four points below the Tuscan side after a fifth straight defeat.

Kickoff was delayed for an hour after a small fire started in the Empoli dressing room because of a short circuit. It was swiftly brought under control but the teams were evacuated and the fire service arrived to ensure it was safe for the match to go ahead.

Perhaps affected by that incident, the match got off to a sluggish start and the only real chance of the first half was when Lecce goalkeeper Wladimiro Falcone pulled off a stunning save to fingertip Caputo’s long-range effort over the bar, just before halftime.

Empoli broke the deadlock after Fabiano Parisi ran into the area and was clumsily barged over by Lecce midfielder Morten Hjulmand. Caputo powerfully placed the resulting penalty down the middle. The home side almost doubled their lead five minutes later but Falcone made a double save to, first, parry Roberto Piccoli’s header from point-blank range, then Filippo Bandinelli prodded the rebound into the goalie’s arms.

Empoli assistant coach Alberto Bertolini and defender Lorenzo Tonelli were sent off from the bench for dissent in separate incidents.

Sassuolo’s four-match winning streak ended after drawing Torino 1-1 in a mid-table clash.

Torino’s Nemanja Radonjic hit the crossbar in the 32nd minute but Sassuolo took the lead against the run of play five minutes later.

Torino goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic managed to palm away a powerful, angled drive by Domenico Berardi but Andrea Pinamonti tapped in the rebound.

The leveler came in the 66th. Ricardo Rodriguez’s cross from the left was poor but came out to Valentino Lazaro on the other side of the area and he whipped it back in for a diving header from Antonio Sanabria.

Torino moved up to 10th, a point above Sassuolo.

Published in The Daily National Courier, April, 05 2023

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