Il Bologna comeback the double disadvantage with the champions of Italy and remains in the running for the eighth place. Skorupski is wrong, Osimhen, with a brace (25th in the league), does not forgive. But Bologna has legs, heart and head to react, in the presence of a Napoli which continues the long championship celebration on and off the pitch, honoring the commitment and awaiting the announcements relating to the future of the coach Spalletti and the market man Giuntoli. Spalletti resorts to the turnover to give chances to Gollini, Bereszynski and Zerbin, Motta has to give up the suspended Orsolini (in addition to the long-term patients Kyriakopoulos, Soriano and Soumaoro) and lines up Aebischer in the trident with Arnautovic and Barrow. It’s a blocked and tactical game at the start: it was uncorked by a mistake in construction by Skorupski, who, looking for Cambiaso, passed the ball to Osimhen, who with an empty net made the thousands of Azzurri fans present at the Dall’Ara scream with joy. Bologna responded by managing to take control of the game from half an hour onwards, when Dominguez took control of the midfielder and his teammates by the hand: the Argentine attempted a shot a couple of times, touching Gollini’s post in the 43rd minute , and inspiring the previous actions for Arnautovic and Barrow: but the rossoblù attackers have wet powder and kick out, while Napoli responds with a couple of dangerous counter-attacks with Osimhen and Zerbin, on which Skorupski tries to make up for it. Bologna starts the second half as they finished the first half: attacking. After five minutes Dominguez is found between the lines and sends Arnautovic face to face with Gollini: but the Austrian confirms that he is not having the day, choking the shot and sending it wide. Bologna makes mistakes, Napoli doesn’t: in the ninth of the second half, Barrow loses the ball on the frontline, Bereszynski recovers and verticalizes for Osimhen, who alone in front of Skorupski scores the 2-0 with a low diagonal that seems to close the match and locks down the standings markers (odds 25). But Motta changes the trident in the quarter of an hour and the cards on the table, inserting Zirkzee, Moro and Sansone. The latter calls Gollini for the first save with a shot in the 19th minute: Ferguson pounces on the rebound and shortens the distance. In the 72nd minute Bologna would also have an equal chance with Sansone, who however sends the shot high. Napoli would also have opportunities on the counterattack to close it, with Zerbin and, before the substitutions, with Kvaratskhelia Osimhen, several times close to making a set, but the role of top scorer is in any case armored: Osimhen has 25 centers in the league, plus five on Lautaro one day from the end. A day that remains decisive for Bologna, because another substitute, Lorenzo De Silvestri finds the header from Sansone’s corner to make it 2-2 in the 39th minute, with the rossoblù several times close to taking the lead in injury time, but the onslaught it fails, with a goal disallowed for offside by Samson.
Eleven meters and less than 10 kilometres: the distance taken by the ball sent into the net by Lorenzo Colombo is proportional to what the player’s family has to do to go from Vimercate to the U-Power Stadium, less than 10 km from Monza, to rejoice at the goal that saved the Salentini. Baroni kneels on the pitch, in the 101st minute, when Colombo’s penalty is worth the 0-1 of the Apulian salvation and condemns Monza to suffer the overtaking of Turin and Fiorentina in the last corner on the straight that leads to eighth place and all hypothetical Conference League. It’s an unbelievable ending, the one written from the last minutes of Monza-Lecce with Gytkjaer, the last housewife in red and white, who misses a penalty six minutes from the end and causes the decisive one for the guests in the tenth minute of added time. He who had been the top scorer in the B playoffs last year, he who had scored the goal in the club’s first victory in Serie A against Juventus in September. Epilogue of an afternoon with record attendance at U-Power, which began with Lecce sending Askildsen onto the pitch and making Hjulmand sit on the bench. The people of Salento are the most convinced to start, who arrive at the shot in the 11th minute with Banda, deflected on the back by Pablo Marì. Just the Spaniard misses a support for Rovella, with Banda serving Strefezza: shot blocked, then Askildsen again to shoot high. Baroni realizes he can push and again Banda sinks to the left and again Marì to lift it over the crossbar to prevent Ceesay from hitting the net. Monza fails to change pace and the cooling break intervenes to break the rhythm, but not the inertia of the match. Who throughout the first half leaves only so many blank lines on the notebook of match notes. Mental notes are also taken by Ariedo Braida, in the stands next to Adriano Galliani and ever closer to returning to Brianza. At the interval, Palladino changes and after a minute Ciurria misses the volley from the penalty spot, then in the eleventh minute it’s Caprari’s left foot that goes one meter from the cross, on a free kick. Yet it is the visitors who could pass in the 25th minute, with Ceesay dribbling Di Gregorio and shooting wide with his left foot as the offside flag goes up. The pace is low and the spaces wide: in one of these Colpani slips in and takes the back, Baschirotto overwhelms him in the area and Doveri resorts to the Var to decree the penalty. He kicks Gytkaer and Falcone stretches out with an open hand to repel with an open hand in the bottom corner. In the eighth of added time, Gytkjaer hits a shot from the flag with his thigh, which bounces off his forearm: the Var says it is a penalty. The rest is history.