Bologna held on for an impressive 2-0 victory on the road in Serie A against Sassuolo at the Mapei Stadium on Sunday Afternoon.
A Second half thunderbolt from Emanuele Giaccherini broke the deadlock before an injury time effort from Sergio Floccari secured the three points for the visitors.
The Rossoblu had won four of their last five away games in Serie A but they were coming to a team who hadn’t been beaten in the league on home turf since 29th April 2015.
No pattern emerged as the game started very erratically, with neither side able to keep possession. Some robust challenges were flying in, further breaking up the tempo.
It was the away side who had the first chance when Matteo Destro showed good skill to come in from the left before watching his deflected shot which forced a reaction save from Andrea Consigli.
A few minutes later, Sassuolo’s Lorenzo Pellegrini latched onto an accurate pass on the edge of the box and fired away an instinctive strike and was unfortunate to watch it miss the target with the ‘keeper beaten.
Destro had another attempt which was blocked by Marcello Gazzolo who recovered well to concede a corner. The resulting dead ball was headed smartly by the former Roma forward, with Consigli again showing excellent agility to get a strong left hand to the effort.
In fact, both sides seemed propelled by their chances and mixed their strong tackling with quick, measured passing. Unfortunately, penetration was lacking as the half progressed as they left the field at 0-0 going into the break.
Having switched to the right hand side, it was Giaccherini who opened the scoring with a left footed effort from the edge of the box with just over twenty minutes remaining. The 30-year-old’s sweetly struck effort flew inside the far post.
Shortly after Destro should have doubled the lead when he headed a hanging cross over the bar after leaping a little too early.
The home side only looked a threat from corners before Nicola Sansone brightened up a bit. With ten minutes remaining, he hit a peach of a shot which flew just over the bar. Looking to turn it on, the winger looked to repeat Giaccherini’s trick from the right but the Bologna ‘keeper watched it sail comfortably wide.
Bologna did score another on the break when, deep into injury time, Flocarri broke with speed and beat a defender to put the ball into the bottom corner.
The result moves the Rossoblu up into 12th whilst the Neroverdi stay in 7th, after the midweek fixture took it’s toll on Eusebio Di Francesco’s men.
