Bologna qualified for the semi-final of the Coppa Italia for the first time in the 21st century after claiming a hard-fought 1-0 victory away against Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta on Tuesday evening, thanks to a goal off the bench from substitute Santiago Castro.
Charles De Ketelaere stung the palms of Lukasz Skorpuski six minutes in after a wonderful ball through from Ederson, but the Belgian might have been better off squaring to the on-rushing Mateo Retegui at the back post.
There was an enforced change after 36 minutes when Jens Odgaard went down clutching his hamstring. He had just sprinted back into his own area to try and stop Davide Zappacosta in his area, but felt a twang in the back of his thigh and was forced off.
Italiano opted to introduce Benja Dominguez to replace the injured Odgaard.
Tommaso Pobega tried to put Bologna ahead just before the half-time interval, trying a first-time effort from the edge of the area after a cut-back from Dan Ndoye, but his effort was well smothered by the Atalanta defence.
A treble substitution from Gasperini just shy of the hour mark saw January signing Daniel Maldini come on for his Atalanta debut. He came on alongside Juan Cuadrado and Lazar Samardzic, while Davide Zappacosta, Mario Pasalic and Mateo Retegui came off.
Atalanta were adamant that Bologna should have been reduced to 10 men in the 67th minute when Cuadrado hit the deck on his way into the area. Emil Holm touched him on the back right on the edge of the area, but the Rossoblu avoided both a sending off and a penalty.
There was another Atalanta debutant when Stefan Posch came on in the 72nd minute against the club who he left to join La Dea on loan with an option to buy on Monday evening.
Maldini had a glorious chance to net on his Atalanta debut shortly after Posch was introduced. Marco Brescianini had fed him through one-on-one on the edge of the area, but the eventual shot went straight at Skorupski.
Holm also had a powerful effort saved by Rui Patricio at the other end just a few minutes after Maldini was denied.
The visitors went ahead with 10 minutes to go through substitute Castro, who had only come on a few minutes earlier to replace Thijs Dallinga.
Charalampos Lykogiannis sent a wicked free-kick delivery in from a central position, where Castro leaped, made contact and guided the ball past Rui Patricio for 1-0.
There were some slightly unfortunate scenes in injury time when Bologna were doing their best to slow the game down. Marten De Roon did not take kindly to Dan Ndoye standing in the way of his free-kick, so he pushed him over, picked up a yellow card and had to be pushed away while some of the players continued arguing.
This is the first time that Bologna have made it to the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia in the 21st century, the last instance coming in 1999.
The Rossoblu will go on to face the winner of the quarter-final involving Juventus and Empoli over two legs in April.
Atalanta 0-1 Bologna
Castro 80 (B)
Player statistic
| 67' |  |
Emil Holm | ||
| 80' |  |
Santiago Castro (Assist: Charalampos Lykogiannis) | ||
| Marten de Roon | |
90+2' | ||
| 90+2' | |
Dan Ndoye |
Match statistic
Starting lineups
Substitutes
