UEL | Bologna 4-1 RB Salzburg: Bernardeschi icing on cake of first home victory

Bologna secured their first Europa League home win of the season in real style, including Federico Bernardeschi and Thijs Dallinga strikes, to beat RB Salzburg 4-1.

The Rossoblu were coming off three consecutive Serie A victories, but that form was not reflected in Europe with a narrow defeat to Aston Villa, win away to Steaua Bucharest, plus two disappointing draws with Freiburg and SK Brann. In that most recent stalemate, they were down to 10 men for over an hour, so Charalampos Lykogiannis was suspended here, with Ciro Immobile, Lukasz Skorupski, Jonathan Rowe, Remo Freuler and Nicolò Cambiaghi all injured. Salzburg lost their first three Europa League games, then beat Go Ahead Eagles 2-0. Their absentee list included Lucas Gourna-Douath, Karim Onisiwo, Takumu Kawamura, Justin Omoregie, Christian Zawieschitzky and John Mellberg.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Tommaso Pobega’s header landed on the roof of the net from a corner, but they really should’ve taken the lead when Riccardo Orsolini’s angled drive was parried by Alexander Schlager into the path of Jens Odgaard, who got the rebound horribly wrong from point-blank range.

Curiously, Odgaard did score a much more difficult opportunity later on to give Bologna the lead. Orsolini’s cross was badly cleared by Soumalia Diabate to the edge of the area, where Odgaard hit it hard and low with the aid of a deflection.

Bologna got into a tangle playing out from the back and Jhon Lucumi slipped, so while Federico Ravaglia parried the Edmund Baidoo strike, he could do little on a Yorbe Vertessen follow-up.

The hosts were unlucky to see the Thijs Dallinga effort parried from point-blank range, while Schlager also stuck out a trailing leg to deny Juan Miranda.

However, Bologna really should’ve scored when Pobega somehow steered it wide from point-blank range on Federico Bernardeschi’s cross.

Jacob Rasmussen threw himself in the way of a Nadir Zortea effort that was arrowing its way towards goal on the stroke of half-time.

The Rossoblu restored their advantage straight after the restart, as Miranda’s perfectly-weighted slide-rule pass released Dallinga down the left, and his snooker shot surprised Schlager from the tightest of angles.

Moments later there was a third goal, the Zortea cross floated from the right for the towering Bernardeschi header back across the goalkeeper into the other top corner. He hadn’t scored in a major UEFA competition since October 2019 for Juventus against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.

They were fired up, Orsolini curling inches wide from outside the box, but Ravaglia had to make two big saves in quick succession to deny Vertessen on a long ball, then Petar Ratkov too.

When he was beaten by Ratkov, he was rescued by the offside flag to disallow the goal on 65 minutes.

It was a very entertaining match and wide open, as Schlager kept the scoreline down with a save from point-blank range on Giovanni Fabbian.

Orsolini curled wide and moments later Ratkov smashed his finish against the bar after sending Lucumi to ground.

Bologna’s fourth was a well-worked move with a series of one-touch passes down the left to create the chance, Santiago Castro was denied from close range, but Orsolini was ready to turn in the rebound.

The chances kept coming, including the acrobatic Castro overhead kick well saved.

Bologna 4-1 RB Salzburg

Odgaard 26 (B), Vertessen 33 (S), Dallinga 51 (B), Bernardeschi 53 (B), Orsolini 86 (B)