Serie A | Bologna 1-1 Atalanta: Stunning Samardzic scrapes point against 10 men

A Lazar Samardzic scorcher allowed Atalanta to finally break down 10-man Bologna and snatch a point at the Stadio Dall’Ara, despite the Santiago Castro opener.

Both sides were struggling with the joint pressures of Serie A and Champions League football, along with growing injury lists. Vincenzo Italiano got his first win last week at Monza, but missed Tommaso Pobega with Nicolò Cambiaghi, Oussama El Azzouzi and Lewis Ferguson. La Dea lost three of their five Serie A matches and Isak Hien added to the crisis with an adductor issue, missing out alongside Rafael Toloi, Giorgio Scalvini and Gianluca Scamacca.

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Santiago Castro’s diving header was wide in the opening minutes and Riccardo Orsolini saw his shot charged down by Berat Djimsiti when he should’ve passed for the striker.

Lukasz Skorupski made an astounding reaction save with his outstretched boot when Ademola Lookman had been sent clear by Charles De Ketelaere’s through ball.

Djimsiti had to make another decisive block on Castro as the offside trap failed, but there was yet more bad news for Atalanta as Marco Brescianini stumbled during an attempt from six yards and injured the back of his left thigh.

Lazar Samardzic came on to replace him and immediately fired over the bar, but it was Bologna who took the lead within 40 seconds of the restart.

Dan Ndoye’s through ball surprised Sead Kolasinac and Castro shimmied away from another challenge to drill into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area.

However, Bologna self-destructed moments later when Jhon Lucumi was caught in possession and brought down De Ketelaere. At first the referee had awarded a penalty, but when VAR confirmed the foul was outside the area, it automatically became a straight red card instead.

On the resulting free kick routine, Lookman’s wayward shot turned into an assist for Raoul Bellanova to turn onto the crossbar from point-blank range. Lookman also drilled wide of the near post on a corner, as it turned into a siege on 10-man Bologna with little breakthrough, despite throwing all the available attacking players on.

Martin Erlic charged down a Mateo Retegui control and volley, while Lookman combined with the Nicolò Zaniolo back-heel flick in the box to see his cross-shot just past Mario Pasalic at the back post.

Samardzic saw his daisy-cutter from the edge of the box thump the base of the near post, but moments later tried again from the same spot and this time bent the left-foot curler into the far top corner to equalise.

Atalanta kept pushing for a victory, but Pasalic’s attempt was charged down and Lookman drilled wide. With the last kick of the game, De Ketelaere couldn’t quite connect with the Lookman cross from a couple of yards and Juan Cuadrado volleyed over from a tricky angle.