Italiano: ‘Bologna take risks and can concede, but score plenty too’

Vincenzo Italiano feels Bologna are getting to grips with Europa League football after their exhilarating 4-1 win over RB Salzburg. ‘You risk conceding a lot, but can score plenty too.’

The Rossoblu had only one Europa League win out of four going into this game, losing to Aston Villa, with disappointing draws against Freiburg and SK Brann.

They turned on the style at the Stadio Dall’Ara tonight with numerous scoring opportunities on top of their 4-1 victory with goals from Jens Odgaard, Thijs Dallinga, Federico Bernardeschi and Riccardo Orsolini.

Having said that, RB Salzburg also had quite a few chances of their own in a very entertaining and open match, but Italiano’s men do finally secure their first home win of the Europa League campaign.

“The lads lost their focus a little when we were 3-1 up and we allowed a couple of opportunities, but the rest all went the right way,” Italiano told Sky Sport Italia.

“We had a great performance against a strong opponent, which has pace and good passing channels between their forwards. It was important to stop them breaking into the middle, and it was a struggle, while we perhaps could’ve scored more goals considering the number of chances we created.

“The three points were important, I saw we are climbing up the table and it’s going to be tight to the very end, but we want to keep going and secure qualification for the play-offs.”

Having stuttered early on in the campaign, Bologna are really finding their feet, unbeaten in nine Serie A rounds and now in four Europa League games too.

“Many teams in Europe move the wingers inside to create one on one situations, leaving the space for their full-backs to attack too. I saw it a few times in the Champions League last season too, it’s a struggle for our defenders to constantly chase them down, but once we get the ball back and manage to be this incisive, we can make the most of it too,” added Italiano.

It was an extraordinarily open game with end to end moves and so many clear-cut chances, not the kind we are accustomed to seeing in Serie A.

“What I noticed in these European games is that when the opponents have the ball, they try to create these solutions by moving players around. When you win it back, though, you can really hurt them. Everyone wants to play the ball and that means they take risks, so you have to be aggressive and win those duels, man for man,” explained Italiano.

“In Europe, they don’t go looking to defend and counter, they want to take the game to you, and focus a lot on pace, playing the ball to feet, which has its strengths and weaknesses too. You risk conceding a lot, but if you do it well, you can score plenty too.”

Bernardeschi had not scored in a major UEFA tournament since Juventus took on Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League in October 2019, so is the former Toronto FC player truly back after his spell in MLS?

“Federico arrived from a league that has a much lower tempo compared to Italy and Europe. I said when he first came here that he needed time to get used to it again, so he had picked up some different habits in Canada, but has started making that mental switch to express his quality the way he always used to,” concluded Italiano.

“He was able to play on his preferred flank today, although he can work on both, and even scored with a header today. He can do it all, and that includes picking up his feet to chase defenders down and help out.”