Two penalties and Alberto Gilardino strike were enough to secure Bologna victory over Palermo at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara on Sunday afternoon in Serie A.
It was the home side who took the game by the scruff of the neck, after riding out some early Palermo pressure, as Alberto Gilardino picked up the ball on the edge of the area and fired a powerful strike across Samir Ujkani into the top right hand corner of the goal to emphatically hand the Rossoblu the lead.
Palermo could have considered themselves unfortunate to be a goal behind after creating numerous chances inside the first twenty minutes but the Rosanero failed to capitalise upon them.
Bologna were knocking on the door again as Gilardino received the ball, this time inside the area, turning his defender and firing at goal. Ujkani was on hand however who made a good save to keep the deficit to one.
Moments before half time Bologna doubled their lead with a well taken spot kick. The penalty had been awarded as Palermo defender Massimo Donati handled the ball blatantly in full view of the referee. Manolo Gabbiadini dispatched the penalty and ensured Bologna would take a two goal lead into the break.
Things turned from bad to worse almost immediately as the second half began for Palermo. When Ujkani brought down Gilardino inside the area, on the back of some suspect defending from Donati, the referee had not other option than to point to the spot. Alessandro Diamanti stepped up and blasted the ball in off the cross bar and ran to celebrate his sides three goal lead.
Palermo looked for avenues back into the game and came extremely close to pulling a goal back when Edgar Barreto struck a free kick from twenty five metres out, which slammed off the post, ricocheting into the area but the Bologna defence were first to react and cleared the ball.
From almost getting his name on the score sheet to being given his marching orders, Barreto had kicked out at Diamanti and was shown his second yellow card. The Sicilians had to play out the remaining quarter of an hour with nine men.
The away side were not the only ones to suffer from the referee’s trigger finger as Saphir Taider was then shown his second yellow after a late challenge on Jasmin Kurtic.
Frustrations were obvious amongst the Palermo players as Carlos Labrin, who had only been on the field for twenty minutes, went in high with studs showing on Archimede Morleo and he was shown straight red. Palermo now had eight remaining players on the field.
The game ended with eighteen players on the field and with the score three nil in Bologna’s favour.
