March 8 (Reuters) - An Andrea Petagna penalty earned SPAL a 1-0 win at Parma in the first closed-door match of the Serie A season, but the game faced a long delay after scenes of confusion before kickoff.
Chaos reigned minutes before the match was scheduled to start, as players were called back into the dressing room from the tunnel as they awaited a decision on whether the game was to go ahead.
That followed a call from Italy’s sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora to suspend the league amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The game eventually started 75 minutes later than planned, and SPAL earned a valuable three points thanks to a second-half Petagna spot kick, which lifted them off bottom and into 19th place on 18 points, two ahead of Brescia.
All Serie A matches will be played without fans attending until April 3 as part of government measures put in place to try and stop the spread of the virus. (Reporting by Alasdair Mackenzie Editing by Toby Davis)
Source: espn.co.uk