Hellas Verona held bottom club Catania to a goalless draw in the Serie A on Saturday, thanks to the heroics of goalkeeper Rafael.
Verona’s Brazilian shot-stopper pulled off several saves, notably to deny Sebastian-Leto from point-blank range in the 19th minute. Gino Peruzzi fired the rebound wide of the right upright.
Rafael made another close-range save to keep out Pablo Alvarez’s header from Pablo Barrientos’ free kick.
Verona’s only real chance came on the strike of halftime when Juanito Gomez collected a deft backheel from Luca Toni and rolled across for Romulo, who shot wide of an open goal.
Catania, which remains bottom, snapped a run of three successive defeats and is four points off safety ahead of the rest of the weekend fixtures. Verona remains sixth.