Bologna earned their first win under coach Thiago Motta, seeing off Lecce with Marko Arnautovic on his comeback and Lewis Ferguson breaking his Serie A duck.
This was a real relegation tussle with only one point separating the teams going into the weekend, sitting 16th and 17th. Marko Arnautovic returned from injury, but Darius Kasius and Jerdy Schouten missed out, while Antonino Gallo sat out a ban for the visitors and Morten Hjulmand was back.
Bologna had managed only one point from the four games since Thiago Motta took over from Sinisa Mihajlovic.
The referee awarded a penalty after the VAR on-field review, as Gendrey was looking only at the ball and didn’t seem to realise Michel Aebischer was right there, so when he went to kick it clear, he caught Aebischer instead. Arnautovic marked his comeback by sending Wladimiro Falcone the wrong way.
Falcone parried a Stefan Posch header and Andrea Cambiaso’s free kick only grazed Lewis Ferguson’s hair at the back post, but that warning was not heeded.
Bologna doubled their lead with a similar move, as this time Ferguson ducked for the glancing header on a corner at the near stick from five yards. It was the Scottish midfielder’s debut Serie A goal and the fifth conceded by Lecce this season from a corner.
The Salentini came out fighting for the second half with a series of chances, including a Federico Di Francesco dinked finish and Federico Baschirotto’s header just wide on a corner, but Bologna held firm.
Joan Gonzalez also nodded off target from a free kick and Remi Oudin tested Lukasz Skorupski.
Riccardo Orsolini combined with Arnautovic only to fire wide of the near post in a well-worked Bologna move, then the Austrian set up Posch to force a desperate save and Nico Dominguez skimmed the crossbar.
Bologna 2-0 Lecce
Arnautovic pen 13 (B), Ferguson 35 (B)