The Italian derby's consolation match in Europe ended 1-1 in the first leg. Bologna and Roma will postpone the verdict on who will advance to the Europa League until the second leg of their round of 16 tie, next week at the Olimpico.
Whoever of the two goes, it will take much more than tonight's match at the Dall'Ara, with its slow pace and many errors, to hope to defend the prestige of Italian football in the cup competitions.
Bernardeschi scored and led the way, Malen hit the post: but Bologna hurt themselves, with a terrible mistake by Joao Mario leading to the equaliser built by Cristante, finished by Malen and finished by Pellegrini, with Gasperini recovering from a game that had started badly by squeezing the maximum from a bare-bones bench.
The first round of the Europa League round of 16 ended in a draw, with the next round to be decided in a week's time at the Olimpico. It also ended with a bitter taste in the mouth for Bologna, who had tasted the taste of home victory after last weekend's defeat to Verona.
With the league season over, Italiano's Rossoblù have shown they can turn things around in Europe, racking up their tenth consecutive unbeaten run (7 wins, 3 draws) in UEFA competition. They're finally at full strength, something they haven't done since the opening matchday of the season against the Giallorossi. Roma, in dire straits (Kone, Angelino, Dovbyk, Dybala, Ferguson, Mancini, Soule, and Venturino out), struggled to change their pace, but they didn't give up and were clinical enough to capitalize on their opponents' mistakes and limit the damage ahead of the return leg, led by an unstoppable Malen, who was serving as an assist provider.
(Unioneonline)
