Samir offers welcome cheer to sickly Verona football

Verona have been bottom of Italy's top flight for most of the campaign, with relegation to Serie B, barring a dramatic turnaround, a near certainty.

But Luigi Delneri's men kept their faint survival hopes alive, at least mathematically, thanks to Samir's crisp 44th minute header from a corner.

Verona remain bottom but are now six points adrift of fourth-from-bottom Palermo with seven games left to play.

Bologna, suffering their third consecutive defeat, remain in 11th place.

Champions Juventus sit top of the pile with a six-point lead on Napoli, who suffered a 3-1 defeat at Udinese on Sunday when star striker Gonzalo Higuain hit his 30th goal of the campaign but was sent off and now risks a four-game ban.