Bologna looked the marginally more threatening side in the early stages, as Federico Bernardeschi’s effort from range was comfortably held by Ionut Radu, before Juan Miranda’s inviting cross just missed the airborne Santiago Castro.
Miranda was then perhaps lucky not to be booked after shoving Borja Iglesias in the face while winning the ball, and it was down his side where Celta opened the scoring on 17 minutes.
From a quick free-kick, Sergio Carreira found Williot Swedberg, and the two-goal hero from Celta’s stunning win at Real Madrid last Sunday shrugged off Charalampos Lykogiannis and surged into the box before superbly laying the ball off for Bryan Zaragoza to tuck home.
That lead could have evaporated within 10 minutes, though, as Carl Starfelt’s badly underhit pass back to Radu was seized on by Jonathan Rowe, but he could only guide the ball wide on the stretch.
Castro was next to go close as Bologna looked to get back level, but they could have been 2-0 down when visiting goalkeeper Federico Raviglia gave the ball straight to Swedberg, who luckily for the Italian slipped over in the Galician rain.
Castro saw another chance go begging heading into half-time as Radu slid out to thwart him, before Zaragoza was seemingly forced off with an injury at the break as he was replaced by Hugo Alvarez.
Bologna’s Bernardeschi had already shown himself to be dangerous, so it was not surprising to see him involved in what he thought was the equaliser just before the hour mark as he skinned Oscar Mingueza and cut the ball back for Tommaso Pogeba to convert, only for the would-be assist-maker to be flagged offside.
Then, a bizarre situation ensued when Pobega was initially deemed to have strayed offside after being brought down in Celta’s box, and following a VAR check that determined that the midfielder was actually onside, he was also deemed to have been fouled by Javi Rodriguez, with Bernardeschi stepping up to beat Radu from the penalty spot with aplomb.
Giraldez duly made a triple substitution, but one of those newly introduced players, Iago Aspas, misplaced a pass straight to Nicolo Cambiaghi, who fed Bernardeschi, with the winger advancing into the area before squeezing his shot beyond Radu.
That was how things stayed as Bologna moved up to 13th in the table and into the seeded qualification positions for the knockout-phase play-offs, after securing back-to-back away wins in major European competition for the first time since November 1998.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Federico Bernardeschi (Bologna)
