Bologna fought back twice to beat Salernitana with a Lorenzo De Silvestri brace, but it was a chaotic match with the hosts down to nine men and the visitors 10.
The pressure was already on the Rossoblu after their 5-4 Coppa Italia home defeat to Ternana, while Salernitana were back in Serie A after more than 20 years.
The hosts kept most of the possession, but the first real chance was for Salernitana, Federico Bonazzoli’s free kick palmed away by Lukasz Skorupski.
Salernitana went down to 10 men, as Stefan Strandberg foolishly received two yellow cards within 60 seconds, the first for a rugby-tackle on Riccardo Orsolini, then a blatant handball to charge down a Marko Arnautovic shot from the edge of the area.
Bologna tried to immediately take advantage, Nico Dominguez’s header skimming the far post on a corner, but the game changed again after the restart.
This time, Roberto Soriano was the player to receive a second yellow card and his raised arm on Djuric was also inside the box, so in one fell swoop Bologna went down to 10 and gave away a penalty. It was converted by Bonazzoli to give Salernitana a shock lead.
It didn’t last long, as Bologna hit back immediately with a Lorenzo De Silvestri header on a corner at the back post, which goal-line technology confirmed had just about crossed over.
Arnautovic tested Vid Belec, but Salernitana restored their lead with a chaotic move. After a an initial effort was parried, Mamadou Coulibaly curled the rebound into the far top corner from a tricky angle.
Bologna weren’t going to give in, as Arnautovic gathered with his back to goal, turned on a sixpence to drill into the near bottom corner from 12 yards, then three minutes after that another De Silvestri header from a corner turned the game around completely for 3-2.
The drama still wasn’t over, Bologna going down to nine for Jerdy Schouten’s second bookable offence, but they clung on for the comeback victory.
Bologna 3-2 Salernitana
Bonazzoli pen 52 (S), De Silvestri 59, 77 (B), M Coulibaly 70 (S), Arnautovic 74 (B)
Sent off: Strandberg 34 (S), Soriano 50 (B), Schouten 88 (B)