Italiano: ‘Bologna leave Liverpool with heads held high’ | OneFootball

Vincenzo Italiano feels Bologna leave Anfield ‘with our heads held high’ after the 2-0 Champions League defeat to Liverpool. ‘I am convinced they did not expect us to be so courageous.’

The Rossoblu are yet to find the net so far this season in the Champions League, as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Shakhtar Donetsk at the Stadio Dall’Ara and lost 2-0 at Anfield.

They were defeated by Mohamed Salah, whose assist was turned in by Alexis Mac Allister at the back post, then the ex-Roma man curled a wonderful second into the top corner.

Nonetheless, they had chances to get into the game, with Alisson Becker making some tough saves and Dan Ndoye thumping the woodwork.

“Clearly, we wanted to leave Anfield with heads held high and I think we did that. Apart from the incidents of the two goals, we could’ve done better on the first, but Salah has basically a 100 per cent scoring rate from that spot,” Italiano told Sky Sport Italia.

“We created chances, we caused problems for Liverpool, who I am convinced did not expect Bologna to be so courageous, to fight back as much as we did, and the lads expressed themselves well.

“It’s a bit that we didn’t manage to score at least one goal, especially as goal difference can be crucial in the table, but we knew this was a learning curve for us and we laid the foundations tonight for our future journey.”

Bologna new to Europe, Italiano laying foundations

While Italiano took Fiorentina to two consecutive Conference League Finals, Bologna have not even qualified for Europe in over 20 years, let alone the Champions League.

How did Bologna prepare for this match, especially as many of them were in their first European campaign?

“I think the emotion of the occasion passed by after a few minutes. We only had one and a half training sessions to prepare for this match, but the players are starting to get accustomed to this timing.”

Fabio Capello in the Sky Sport Italia studio congratulated Italiano on the approach that Bologna took at Anfield, pushing forward, pressing high and recovering the ball to spark counter-attacks.

“We knew Liverpool were strong and we’d allow them a few opportunities, but we also created our chances and tried to push them back with our attacks. We wanted to leave here with confidence and take something positive from the game. I am happy that we gave that impression,” concluded Italiano.