Chievo 1 - 0 Palermo - Sammarco strike sinks Sicilians

Posted Sunday, January 15, 2012 by PA

Palermo's winless run on the road this season continued in Serie A as they lost 1-0 at Chievo.

Paolo Sammarco netted the only goal of the game at the Marc' Antonio Bentegodi stadium in the 50th minute.

The victory was Chievo's sixth of the league campaign and moved the Verona side to 10th in the standings.

Palermo, meanwhile, have fallen to 14th place.

The visitors went into the encounter looking to hand coach Bortolo Mutti his first win in charge since taking over the club before the winter break.

However, Chievo, inspired by their midweek 2-1 triumph at Udinese that saw them progress to the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia, had the first chance early on.

Sammarco fed Alberto Paloschi in the area and his close-range shot was kept out by Palermo goalkeeper Francesco Benussi.

Palermo almost went ahead on the half-hour mark when Mauricio Pinilla got his head behind Edgar Barreto's cross and his powerful effort was saved by Chievo goalkeeper Stefano Sorrentino.

Chievo surged forward more aggressively before half-time and would have taken the lead had Benussi not made a good save to clear Michael Bradley's drive from 30 yards.

Chievo broke the deadlock early in the second half when Palermo's defence failed to clear Luciano's cross, leaving Sammarco unmarked inside the area.

He made no mistake, striking the ball past Benussi and into the bottom left corner.

Palermo reacted and on the hour mark, Armin Bacinovic warmed the hands of Sorrentino with a fierce strike from outside the area.

Chievo defended deeply in the closing stages of the game and Palermo struggled to find a way through.

The best chance Palermo had to equalise was in the 74th minute when substitute Fabrizio Miccoli's header from Josip Ilicic's cross went just over the bar.