Serie A | Bologna 0-1 Juventus: Cabal conquers the Dall’Ara for climb to fifth

Juan Cabal came off the bench to snatch all three points for Juventus against 10 men, continuing the dire Bologna record in this fixture, and leapfrogging them into fifth place.

This was a direct battle for position, as the Rossoblu were two points ahead in the table. Juve lost last week to Napoli, but boosted their Champions League chances in a midweek win over Pafos. Daniele Rugani and Gleison Bremer were back on the bench, but Dusan Vlahovic, Federico Gatti, Arek Milik and Carlo Pinsiglio were still out. Bologna’s Serie A form stalled with defeat to Cremonese and a draw against 10-man Lazio, but on Thursday they won 2-1 away to Celta Vigo in the Europa League. Nicolò Casale joined Martin Vitik, Remo Freuler and Lukasz Skorupski on the treatment table.

Incredibly, Juve were unbeaten at the Dall’Ara since November 1998 and hadn’t lost to Bologna at all since a 2-0 result in February 2011.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

There was an early double Michele Di Gregorio save, first on Tommaso Pobega’s acrobatic flick from a free kick, then the Riccardo Orsolini follow-up at the back post.

Orsolini’s trademark curler was smothered and Teun Koopmeiners was booked so will be suspended next week against Roma, but David overhit the through ball to Kenan Yildiz after pouncing on a Lewis Ferguson error.

Weston McKennie only grazed his head to the Andrea Cambiaso cross, while David had penalty appeals waved away for going down too easily under a Jhon Lucumi nudge.

Juventus had the ball in the net on 36 minutes when David flicked on a long ball for McKennie, who won the ricochet off on-rushing Ravaglia and generously rolled across for the Canadian to deposit into an empty net. However, McKennie was offside on the initial flick.

Juve kept coming close, but not close enough, as Ravaglia rushed out when Kenan Yildiz found Conceicao with a smart pass, then Lucumi made the crucial interception as Khephren Thuram tried to set up the Portuguese talent.

Yet Bologna had a huge chance on the stroke of half-time, as Orsolini’s inspired disguised pass released Nadir Zortea to thump his finish against the underside of the bar from a tight angle with Di Gregorio just getting his fingertips to it.

Bologna had rather hopeful penalty appeals, but Manuel Locatelli’s hands were clamped behind his back when blocking the Cambiaghi cross.

Juventus finally found a breakthrough when Kenan Yildiz saw his control and strike deflected inches over by Heggem. The resulting corner was taken short for a Kenan Yildiz cross that found substitute Juan Cabal for a totally free header from six yards.

The situation went from bad to worse for the hosts, as soon after Heggem got caught out by a long Di Gregorio ball and bundled Lois Openda over outside the area for a straight red card.

There was more good news for Juventus, as Gleison Bremer made his comeback for the final 15 minutes, the first appearance since the meniscus injury on September 27.

Conceicao had penalty appeals rejected after running into Lucumi’s arm, infuriating the defender, while Federico Bernardeschi’s effort failed to trouble Di Gregorio.

Ravaglia kept the scoreline down with a great one-handed save on Openda’s daisy-cutter from 12 yards on the Cabal lay-off, then Openda fired another promising opportunity over in stoppages.

It is the second consecutive Serie A home defeat for Bologna after the 3-1 with Cremonese.

Sent off: Heggem 69 (B)