Bologna began the stronger side, and were rewarded in fortuitous circumstances as the quarter-hour mark neared. Lecce defender Valentin Gendrey tried to clear the ball in a 50/50 duel inside the box, but inadvertently swiped Michel Aebischer’s legs from underneath him. A VAR monitor review gave Arnautovic the chance to make another addition to his impressive goal tally for the season, and he did just that, sending Wladimiro Falcone the wrong way with a calm penalty strike into the lower-left corner of the net.
With the wind in their sails, the Rossoblu looked to capitalise, and they did so in the 35th minute, when an outswinging corner from Musa Barrow found Lewis Ferguson at the near post. The Scotsman beat a criminally ponderous Lecce backline, stooping to place a bullet header past the helpless Falcone and double Bologna’s lead. More than anything else, the second goal came as a relief to a side that had dropped points from winning positions in their previous three home league draws, all of which ended 1-1.
However, Lecce appeared newly determined to take something away after the restart, and Federico Baschirotto met a corner kick early in the second half, only to put the ball narrowly wide of the right post. Lecce’s possession play also saw an upturn in quality, but their mini purple patch was short-lived though, and after Bologna regained a degree of control, the visitors’ collective passion boiled over with 20 minutes to play, as an exchange of hard tackles ended with two Bologna players on the floor nursing their wounds.
This set the tone for a more attritional endgame, despite Joan Gonzalez also coming close to halving the deficit with a near-miss of a header, allowing Bologna to close out the game with zero fuss. Bologna have now seen nine of their ten points gained come at home, and their fans once more played a role today, as the Rossoblù got a ninth win in 14 top-flight home head-to-heads. As for 17th-placed Lecce, the alarm bells should be ringing louder than ever, with Marco Baroni’s men now facing three successive contests against sides that started the weekend in the top-eight.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Lewis Ferguson (Bologna)
