Bologna Rolled by The Old Lady

The Rossoblu’s situation didn’t really worsen over the weekend, and indeed that could be reviewed with a sense of relief since today’s opponents were unbeaten runaway league leaders, Juventus. But opponents close to Bologna in the table, failed to take advantage.

Despite having 18 shots to the visitors’ 6, Bologna were undone by Paulo Dybala’s close-range effort after struggling to effectively clear a cross from Blaise Matuidi. It was the only goal of the game.

Photo by Mario Carlini / Iguana Press/Getty Images

At least there is improvement with better performances on the pitch since Pippo Inzaghi’s dismissal and replacement by Sinisa Mihajlovic. They were also unfortunate not to get something from last week’s visit to Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, narrowly going down 1-2 to AS Roma in another very difficult fixture.

So hope springs eternal, but they must turn decent performances into points – they’ve gathered 4 out of a possible 12 since the Serb’s second spell in charge of Bologna began.

They did become the first club to prevent Cristiano Ronaldo scoring in a Serie A away game since the beginning of September, as the Portuguese fell one short of the record (9) established by Giuseppe Signori between May 92 and February 1993.

Nicola Sansone almost grabbed a precious equaliser in injury time at the end of the match, but was thwarted by Juve ‘keeper Mattia Perin, who tipped his 20-yarder onto the post.

Photo by Mario Carlini / Iguana Press/Getty Images

Saputo’s Bologna are away from home in two of their next three games, but all are games in which points are harvestable. The visit to Udinese next Sunday is critical. A win would lift the Rossoblu to just one point behind The Little Zebras, who would find themselves drawn deeper into the relegation battle.

With home games to come in the run-in against the likes of Sassuolo, bottom team Chievo and Empoli, who currently sit three points better off, Bologna will be desperate to accumulate enough points to ensure safety before their last four matches, three of which are against Milan, Lazio and Napoli. They will not want to face any of those three needing victories to remain in the top division.

It all looks set to go to the wire ……