Sinisa Mihajlovic maintains Bologna had ‘no chance’ after the penalty and red card in their 5-0 defeat to Atalanta, while revealing the club has to sell players this summer.
The Rossoblu had a strong start in Bergamo for 20 minutes, but after Ruslan Malinovskyi’s opener, they crumbled, the Jerdy Schouten red card destroying any hope they had at the dawn of the second half.
Sinisa Mihajlovic maintains Bologna had ‘no chance’ after the penalty and red card in their 5-0 defeat to Atalanta, while revealing the club has to sell players this summer.
The Rossoblu had a strong start in Bergamo for 20 minutes, but after Ruslan Malinovskyi’s opener, they crumbled, the Jerdy Schouten red card destroying any hope they had at the dawn of the second half.
Schouten went studs up on the inside of Cristian Romero’s knee and received a straight red without the need for VAR.
“We should’ve been 2-0 up after 20 minutes, then there was the penalty and the red card, the rest of the game was irrelevant. It’s not the first time, it’s a pity we had to deal with the referee,” Mihajlovic told Sky Sport Italia.
“When it was 1-0, it remained a balanced game and both teams could’ve scored. If you give a penalty for that, you’ll have 10 per game, except they only give those penalties against us and not in our favour.”
Mihajlovic chose a three-man defence to mirror the Atalanta system, with Andreas Skov Olsen on the wing.
“Unfortunately, we are missing both our first choice full-backs. If we had Tomiyasu and Dijks, we could’ve caused them real problems. Sansone got hurt too yesterday, so we had to figure something out.
“Nonetheless, we were still causing Atalanta issues up until the penalty and the red card. As the old saying goes, I’d prefer to lose one game 5-0 rather than five games 1-0.
“We know Atalanta are a better team than us, but down to 10 men there’s no chance. The important thing is that these lads showed they had the right approach and mentality, we came out attacking and should’ve taken the lead.”
Mihajlovic met with President Joey Saputo this week and his future at Bologna remains a mystery.
“He said it was impossible. In an ideal world, I’d keep these players and sign a striker and defender. I realise that because of the pandemic, we have to sell. I understand that.
“I hope nobody will want to buy, so at least we’ll keep the current squad, but I doubt that’ll happen. We have to meet again and then we’ll see.
“The objective is to improve the squad. The President is just as ambitious as I am, but it remains to be seen if we can manage it.
“When deciding whether to continue together, we have to take all these issues into account, planning, strategy, having the same approach. Look at Atalanta, they’ve improved every year, they are perhaps the only team in Italy who play with a real European mentality.
“It’s what we’d like to do as well, pressing high, passing it quickly, going for the victory. We always cause the bigger clubs problems precisely because of that approach.”