Bologna’s journey in the Champions League maxi group begins with a 0-0 and a point in their pocketon a historic night, which marked the return of the rossoblù to the top European club competition after more than sixty years since the last time, when it was still called the Champions Cup. A match, played on the Dall’Ara pitch made very heavy by the heavy rain that fell during the day, which saw the two goalkeepers emerge as great protagonists. The best were in fact Skorupski (who saved a penalty from Sudakov in the 4th minute) and Riznyk, who prevented Bologna from finding the goal at the start of the second half thanks to an excellent response on Fabbian.
Vincenzo Italiano, coach of the rossoblù, commented on the challenge as follows: “We faced a team that I thought would give us fewer problems, but they were good. We, for our part, played well, I’m happy with how the boys expressed themselves. We have to consider the emotion of the first match in this competition, but I’m happy with how we faced it. At home we have a spirit that I like and we have to take it with us everywhere. We need to learn to convert our chances, because today we deserved more”.
Here is the match scoreboard:
Bologna (4-2-3-1): Skorupski; Posch, Beukema, Lucumì, Lykogiannis (78′ Miranda); Moro (65′ Pobega), Freuler; Orsolini (65′ Iling Jr), Fabbian (78′ Urbanski), Ndoye; Castro (65′ Dallinga). Coach: Italian
Shakhtar Donetsk (4-3-3): Riznyk; Konoplya (41′ Tobias), Bondar, Matvienko, Pedro Henrique; Bondarenko (79′ Stepanenko), Kryskiv, Sudakov (79′ Marlon); Zubkov (79′ Traore), Sikan (35′ Newertton), Eguinaldo. All.: Pusic
Referee: Essays
Ammonites: Posch, Castro (B), Bondar, Tobias, Stepanenko, Marlon Gomes (S)