Bologna swept Lazio aside in a dominant performance and leapfrogged them into fifth place – or even fourth – with Riccardo Orsolini and Dan Ndoye taking centre-stage.
There was only one point separating the teams going into the Stadio Dall’Ara in fifth and sixth, so this represented a crucial crossroads in the race for Europe. The treatment room had emptied out for the hosts, but the Aquile missed Elseid Hysaj and welcomed back Taty Castellanos to the bench. Some rotation was required after Thursday’s Europa League draw with Viktoria Plzen and Nuno Tavares pulled out in the warm-up, replaced by not fully fit Adam Marusic.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
Bologna opened the scoring when Juan Miranda got down the left and whipped in a cross to the near post, Jens Odgaard at full stretch behind Mario Gila to volley in from five yards.
It was almost 2-0 when Riccardo Orsolini cut inside from the right for a left-foot curler towards the far top corner, but Ivan Provedel’s flying fingertip save pushed it away.
Marusic sprung the offside trap only to fire over from a tricky angle, while Mario Gila was booked for bringing down Dan Ndoye.
Bologna came flying out of the blocks for the restart and scored two goals in 94 seconds.
First, Ndoye cut inside from the left and his through ball released Orsolini, who beat the on-rushing Provedel with a delightful chip.
Moments later, Matteo Guendouzi’s pass was intercepted in midfield, allowing Lewis Ferguson to get down the right and pull back for Ndoye to sweep with the inside of his right foot from 12 yards, a slight deflection off Gila knocking the ball in off the upright.
Mattia Zaccagni tried to respond, his strike thumping the base of the post from the edge of the area.
Guendouzi made a desperate sliding tackle as Giovanni Fabbian was pulling the trigger inside the penalty area.
Alessio Romagnoli did the same on the Santiago Castro angled drive, but the defender was surprised when Castro snuck up behind him to meet the Tommaso Pobega roll across from the left and walk the ball into the net for 4-0. Pobega had started the move by robbing Gila.
It still wasn’t over, as Bologna made it 5-0 after a well-worked move, concluded by Miranda standing up a cross from the left for Giovanni Fabbian’s header from six yards.
They will end the weekend at least in fifth place, or potentially fourth if Juventus fail to beat Fiorentina.
Bologna 5-0 Lazio
Odgaard 16 (B), Orsolini 48 (B), Ndoye 49 (B), Castro 74 (B), Fabbian 84 (B)
Player statistic
| Jens Odgaard (Assist: Juan Miranda) |
 |
16' | ||
| Remo Freuler |  |
33' | ||
| 44' | |
Mario Gila |
| Riccardo Orsolini (Assist: Dan Ndoye) |
|
48' | ||
| Dan Ndoye (Assist: Lewis Ferguson) |
|
49' | ||
| 57' | |
Matías Vecino | ||
| Santiago Castro (Assist: Tommaso Pobega) |
|
74' | ||
| Santiago Castro | |
76' | ||
| Giovanni Fabbian (Assist: Juan Miranda) |
|
84' | ||
| 90+1' | |
Alessio Romagnoli |
Match statistic
This is one of the best seasons ever in my lifetime. I hope Atalanta, Fiorentina, and Roma win, it will be one hell of a beautiful chaos in the table.
Baroni must go he can not do anymore
No solution could not risk using the new signing and stick to formation which has strongest in middle by rovella make it bad by using Ghanndousi every game barini
Go olease go. The team from now won’t get anything wvwn champion place or uefa and