Bologna twice fought back for a point at the Stadio Arechi, despite growing injury problems, as Salernitana were left to rue their defending on set plays.
The hosts were finding form under new coach Paulo Sousa, picking up five points from the last three rounds, including a draw with Milan at San Siro. Domen Crnigoj and William Troost-Ekong were still out injured, while Bologna had Riccardo Orsolini back from suspension, but not fully fit. Nico Dominguez was still on the treatment table and Marko Arnautovic again snubbed in favour of Musa Barrow.
Salernitana opened the scoring with their first real chance after seven minutes, Lorenzo Pirola with the header from seven yards on an Antonio Candreva cross, as the corner was taken short. It was the Inter-owned defender’s debut Serie A goal.
Pasquale Mazzocchi went clear on goal and tried to chip the goalkeeper, who saw it coming, but Bologna equalised with Giorgos Kyriakopoulos swinging in a cross from the left for Lewis Ferguson’s glancing header.
Andrea Cambiaso went off with a groin injury after just 21 minutes and Moro really should’ve scored for Bologna when he gathered inside the box, took a touch to commit one defender, but hesitated and allowed Norbert Gyomber a desperate sliding block.
Ferguson had penalty appeals as he went down under pressure from Domagoj Bradaric in the box, but VAR and the referee waved play on.
Salernitana started to pile on the pressure in the second half, as after Krzysztof Piatek’s strike flashed inches wide and Adama Soumaoro made a big block on Dia, they scored from the resulting corner.
It was cleared to the edge of the area, where Dia drilled through a sea of legs – with a slight deflection off Jerdy Schouten – to find the far bottom corner.
Piatek’s header was straight at Lukasz Skorupski and Ferguson fired over on the counter, but set plays were decisive again with Charalampos Lykogiannis nodding in the Kyriakopoulos corner kick.
There was another blow when Arnautovic limped off the field just 16 minutes after coming on, while Pasquale Mazzocchi seemed to dislocate his shoulder for Salernitana.
Junior Sambia blasted wide from the edge of the area after a poor Skorupski clearance on a corner.
Salernitana 2-2 Bologna
Pirola 7 (S), Ferguson 11 (B), Dia 64 (S), Lykogiannis 73 (B)
Player statistic
| Lorenzo Pirola (Assist: Antonio Candreva) |
 |
7' | ||
| 11' | |
Lewis Ferguson (Assist: Georgios Kyriakopoulos) |
| Boulaye Dia (Assist: Flavius Daniliuc) |
|
64' | ||
| 73' | |
Charalampos Lykogiannis (Assist: Georgios Kyriakopoulos) | ||
| 76' |  |
Riccardo Orsolini |
Match statistic
