Bologna and Napoli share points in Serie A clash

Bologna and Napoli share the spoils in the Serie A clash on Monday night as battle for the Scudetto hots up.

Bologna came from behind to cancel out Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa’s goal with a beautiful flick from Dan Ndoye.

The hosts even had the opportunity to take maximum points, but Castro failed to connect from a rebound.

The match ended on a scary note as Anguissa seemed to have injured himself while trying to get a cross back into the bologna half but seemed to have injured himself, holding his chest as he called for medical attention, and the referee ended the game.

A win could have made the Rossoblu leapfrog Atalanta into third place, while Napoli’s win would have cut the gap at the top to one point.

Both sides were forced into last-minute changes. Alex Meret had flu. Alessandro Buongiorno had a muscular issue, while Lewis Ferguson pulled out in the warm-up for Michael Aebischer.

Napoli took the lead with a remarkable solo effort from Anguissa, who flicked on the long ball in the center circle, shrugged off challenges from Emil Holm and Juan Miranda, and then stayed on his feet to go around Lukasz Skorupski, putting the ball into the empty net.

Skorupski hurt his knee during that move and got injured. He had to come off and be replaced by Federico Ravaglia in the Bologna goal.

After Scott McTominay failed to keep his finish down on a David Neres layoff, he did better when meeting the Giovanni Di Lorenzo roll across from the right, but Ravaglia got down quickly to palm it around the upright.

Bologna upped their game in the second half as Politano made an important interception to help the defense on a Dan Ndoye counter-attack.

They almost restored parity in 59 minutes, as Simone Scuffet got a glove to the Jhon Lucumi, flicked a header on a corner kick, and Matias Olivera made a desperate clearance on the rebound. 

The pressure eventually paid off with a spectacular equalizer, as Odgaard rolled across from the left, and Ndoye met it at the near post with a cheeky back-heel flick from six yards that bounced in off the underside of the crossbar.

They continued pushing as they searched for a winner, but Dallinga and Orsolini were unable to get on the end of a dangerous Odgaard ball flashing across the face of the goal.

Scuffet punched a Miranda free kick away before Billy Gilmour’s crucial clearance, but Santiago Castro could not tap in the loose ball from four yards.

There was an extraordinary chance for Bologna to win it in the final minute of normal time, as Scuffet clawed the Emil Holm header out from under the bar, and Castro bundled the rebound wide from a couple of yards.

 

Napoli had a chance to win it with the last kick of the game in the stoppages with their only real attempt of the entire second half as a Giacomo Raspadori strike deflected to test Ravaglia, who was also alert on the Amir Rrahmani rebound.