Bologna temporarily flew into fourth place with their first away victory of the season sealed by the Joshua Zirkzee brace, but Salernitana’s fightback was too little, too late.
The hosts got their first win of the season against Lazio, but it was quickly followed by a 3-0 thrashing at Fiorentina, so they remained rock bottom. Pippo Inzaghi faced his former club without Guillermo Ochoa, while Bologna had a lengthy absentee list including Riccardo Orsolini, Kevin Bonifazi, Lorenzo De Silvestri, Adama Soumaoro, Jesper Karlsson and Oussama El Azzouzi.
Lewis Ferguson tested Benoit Costil at the near post, but the goalkeeper should’ve done much better on the opening goal.
The Stefan Posch strike from the edge of the box was weak and scuffed, but Costil got down very slowly and fingertipped it into the path of Joshua Zirkzee for a tap-in.
Remo Freuler risked an own goal on the Salernitana free kick routine, but Salernitana conceded a second with some suicidal defending. Zirkzee was more on his toes than Norbert Gyomber, anticipating the terrible Matteo Lovato back-pass and pouncing to beat Costil from a tight angle. It was Zirkzee’s seventh goal of the season, but his first ever Serie A brace.
Inzaghi made a tactical change switching to four at the back after just 34 minutes and it seemed to shake things up, as the Boulaye Dia volley on a Candreva cross was crucially charged down by Kristiansen.
Alexis Saelemaekers was getting some very rough treatment from the Salernitana players, leading to six yellow cards by the end of the match, though Dia risked more than a booking for his blatant kick on the Belgian.
Ikwuemesi was far too sluggish both in the run and the finish when sent clear by a Dia through ball after the restart, but Ferguson almost made it 3-0 when springing the offside trap on a Zirkzee through ball, the finish fingertipped onto the base of the far upright by Costil.
Salernitana finally got one back with 15 minutes left on the clock. Candreva controlled the Maggiore ball over the top, drew defenders towards him and with an acrobatic disguised flick set up Nwankwo Simy to drill into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.
Tempers flared in stoppages with a lighter thrown at Saelemaekers from the stands, while Federico Fazio was sent off from the Salernitana bench for dissent.
The hosts poured forward, Flavius Daniliuc trying to pass it back to Simy rather than go for goal in a better position, then Pol Lirola’s header wide of the near post.
Salernitana 1-2 Bologna
Zirkzee 9, 20 (B), Simy 75 (S)
Player statistic
| 9' |  |
Joshua Zirkzee | ||
| 20' | |
Joshua Zirkzee | ||
| Lassana Coulibaly |  |
26' | ||
| Loum Tchaouna | |
36' | ||
| Pasquale Mazzocchi | |
39' | ||
| Boulaye Dia | |
42' | ||
| 44' | |
Joshua Zirkzee |
| Flavius Daniliuc | |
48' | ||
| Norbert Gyomber | |
54' | ||
| Simy (Assist: Antonio Candreva) |
|
76' | ||
| 85' | |
Kacper Urbanski | ||
| Grigoris Kastanos | |
89' | ||
| Federico Fazio |  |
90+2' | ||
| 90+6' | |
Lukasz Skorupski |
Match statistic
