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Bologna return to the spotlight in the Europa League and face Aston Villa at the Dall’Ara in the first leg of the quarter-finals.
Vincenzo Italiano’s rossoblù head into the clash after knocking out Roma in the round of 16, while Unai Emery’s English side got past Lille.
It is a matchup seen recently: the two teams have met in recent European seasons, in the League Phase of the Champions League and Europa League, with Aston Villa always winning in Birmingham.
This time, though, it will be played at the Dall’Ara, where Bologna are looking to change the story and take a step toward the semi-finals.
🔴 Article constantly updated, click on the match card above for live text commentary.
⚽ Ravaglia completely misses it: Konsa scores, Villa take the lead
44TH MINUTE - Aston Villa go in front, and not through any merit of their own, quite the opposite.
A bad, indeed terrible mistake from Ravaglia coming out, as he completely misses the ball from the corner taken by Youri Tielemans: at the far post Ezri Konsa makes no mistake and heads comfortably into an empty net. A heavy blow for Bologna, who fall behind at the visitors’ first shot on target.
🥵 Now it’s just bad luck: Ferguson hits the bar!
30TH MINUTE - Bologna keep pushing relentlessly and come close to doubling their lead. Rowe is once again the key man, unstoppable on the left, causing panic and delivering a perfect ball into the middle: Ferguson arrives right on cue, but his effort crashes against the crossbar.
The rossoblù are inches away from scoring and very unlucky, while Aston Villa are clearly struggling to contain the English winger’s bursts forward.
❌ Rowe creates, Castro scores: goal-line goal, VAR rules it out for offside
26TH MINUTE - A crazy moment that leaves Bologna fans’ joy stuck in their throats.
The hosts find the breakthrough through Castro at the end of a lightning-fast counterattack orchestrated by Rowe, who does brilliantly to break through and set up his teammate: the shot, deflected, fools everyone and ends up over the line despite the desperate attempt by the English defence. The referee initially awards the goal, but after the check comes the cold shower: offside and goal disallowed.
From the VAR images, the offside really is millimetric.
😍 The Dall'Ara fires up the team and turns 🔴🔵
Beautiful early images coming from the Dall'Ara: all the fans with scarves and flags, and especially those in the side stand wearing red and blue plastic ponchos, ready to create a stunning visual display. As the teams come out, there is also the message: "Come on Bologna".
🗣 Italiano and Di Vaio, the pre-match words
"It’s great to be here, to play matches like these. Let’s see if we can perform well. We’re up against a great team and a coach who has already won this competition four times. They are the favourites, we need to produce a top performance to put them in trouble," the Bologna coach told Sky Sport.
"The path we’ve taken has been very positive, after the first match played in Birmingham we showed our level and our quality, getting through in a group that wasn’t easy. Tonight we hope to repeat those performances against the best team, or at least one of the best teams, in the tournament," said sporting director Di Vaio.
🗣 Emery: "It will be a very demanding match"
"I asked the team to show respect for this competition, it’s difficult to be competitive at a high level against Bologna. Collectively we need to be very organised and try to give our maximum, it will be a very demanding match," the Aston Villa coach told Sky Sport.
✅ The OFFICIAL line-ups
BOLOGNA (4-3-3): Ravaglia; Joao Mario, Lucumí, Heggem, Miranda; Ferguson, Freuler, Pobega; Bernardeschi, Castro, Rowe. Coach: Italiano
ASTON VILLA (4-2-3-1): Dibu Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Pau Torres, Digne; Onana, Douglas Luiz; McGinn, Tielemans, Rogers; Watkins. Coach: Emery
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.