Bologna’s dream season continued on Sunday, as they went on to win 2-1 at Atalanta, one of the four best rivals, and strengthen their bid to make their Champions League debut.
Joshua Zirkzee celebrated his first call-up for the Netherlands by equalising Ademola Lookman’s opener with a penalty in the 57th minute before Lewis Ferguson scored the decisive goal 4 minutes later.
A sixth consecutive victory has given life to Thiago Motta’s Bologna and the rest of the contenders for next season’s renewed edition of Europe’s most important club competition.
Surprising Bologna are fourth, four points ahead of in-form compatriots Roma, who beat Monza 4-1 on Saturday, and are, in turn, one point ahead of sixth-placed Atalanta.
Bologna are seven-time Italian champions, but their last Scudetto was in 1964. They haven’t won a trophy since the 1998 Intertoto Cup.
The following season, Bologna reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup, but were eliminated away by Marseille.
Their last league name led to a brief crusade in the old European Cup, where they were eliminated in the first round by Anderlecht after a 2-2 aggregate draw.
Next Saturday, Bologna will host league leaders Inter Milan, who face Genoa on Monday. Next weekend, Atalanta will visit Juventus and Roma will visit Fiorentina.
Juve are 12 adrift of second-placed Inter and will visit Napoli in Sunday’s final game in a bid to close that gap.
Domenico Berardi will miss Euro 2024 with Italy after suffering an Achilles tendon injury in Sassuolo’s 1-0 loss to relegation rivals Verona.
Karol Swiderski ensured Verona remained one position above the relegation zone with the lone goal against 19th-placed Sassuolo, who lost their opening game against Davide Ballardini and are in freefall.
New coach Ballardini said after his team’s seventh defeat in eight games that he feared Berardi, who made his first debut after nearly two months out injured, had torn his Achilles tendon.
It is an injury that, if confirmed, would end the winger’s season and would also cause him to miss the Italian defense at the European Championship in Germany this summer.
Cagliari is in the bottom 3 but has 23 points with Verona after Jakub Jankto scored the decisive goal in a 1-0 win at Empoli.
Jankto scored in the 69th minute to hand Empoli their first defeat since signing specialist Davide Nicola in mid-January.
Empoli are two points above the relegation zone in 14th place in a tight drop goal battle with Lecce, who drew 1-1 with compatriot Frosinone.
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