Serie A

Football Italia

·4 January 2025

Serie A | Venezia 1-1 Empoli: Pohjanpalo accepts Vasquez gift

A comical howler gifted Venezia the opener, but Empoli fought back to pick up a precious point on the Laguna with Sebastiano Esposito.

The Lagunari were revitalised in recent weeks and unlucky in a slender 1-0 defeat to Napoli, whereas the Tuscans were on the slide after three straight losses. Domen Crnigoj, Alfred Duncan and Michael Svoboda missed out for the hosts. The lengthy absentee list for Empoli included Ola Solbakken, Jacopo Fazzini, Tyronne Ebuehi, Szymon Zurkowski, Saba Sazonov, Nicolas Haas and Pietro Pellegri.

OneFootball Videos

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Venezia were literally gifted the opening goal within five minutes, because goalkeeper Devis Vasquez took an age to clear following the back-pass and fired it straight at Joel Pohjanpalo, the ricochet going directly into the net from nine yards.

Tino Anjorin’s curler was well smothered, but moments later Filip Stankovic gave the ball away with a cheap clearance and was rescued by Jay Idzes practically off the line on Lorenzo Colombo.

Vasquez rushed off his line and made a decisive save to push the ball of the toes of Gaetano Oristanio inside the penalty area, while Stankovic parried a Colombo strike.

VENICE, ITALY – JANUARY 04: Sebastiano Esposito of Empoli celebrates with their teammates after scoring his team’s equalizing goal during the Serie A match between Venezia and Empoli at Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo on January 04, 2025 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Maurizio Lagana/Getty Images)

Empoli got their equaliser in large part thanks to Colombo, who sprung the offside trap on a ball over the top, sent one defender to ground with a cutback, then shimmied past two others to roll across for the easiest of Sebastiano Esposito tap-ins.

It should’ve been 2-1 for Empoli soon after when Youssouf Maleh’s long-range effort took a huge deflection to loop up, but Stankovic somehow managed to claw it out of the top corner.

Pohjanpalo also tested Vasquez from just inside the area and Stankovic used his legs to deny Colombo from point-blank range on the Anjorin through ball.