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·14 February 2024

Serie A | Bologna 2-0 Fiorentina: Orsolini and Odgaard sink Viola

Riccardo Orsolini’s splendid solo effort and another Jens Odgaard goal gave Bologna victory over Fiorentina in a rescheduled game, keeping them in the race for a Champions League spot.

This Week 21 fixture was rescheduled so the Viola could participate in the Supercoppa Italiana semi-final in January, but was a direct head-to-head for fifth place. Adama Soumaoro was the only absentee for the hosts, as Michel Aebischer returned from suspension. Lucas Martinez-Quarta was banned, with Dodo, Gaetano Castrovilli and AFCON winner Christian Kouame unavailable, but Luca Ranieri was back.

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These sides met in the Coppa Italia quarter-final on January 9 and could only be separated by a penalty shoot-out.

Joshua Zirkzee had a huge opportunity after eight minutes, but missed the ball when attempting a cheeky back-heel flick on the Alexis Saelemaekers assist from six yards.

Riccardo Orsolini gathered a Lewis Ferguson cross-field pass and cut inside Cristiano Biraghi to place a precise left-foot finish into the far bottom corner from 12 yards.

Federico Ravaglia palmed a Jack Bonaventura scorcher round the post moments later from the edge of the area, while Rolando Mandragora blasted off target and Saelemaekers stung Pietro Terracciano’s gloves.

Orsolini thought he had doubled his tally with a free kick that skimmed the head of Stefan Posch and surprised Terracciano by bouncing in directly, but the defender was offside and deemed to be interfering with play, so it was disallowed.

Michael Kayode had to perform a desperate goal-line clearance on 51 minutes when Zirkzee had dinked the finish over Terracciano and Arthur risked an own goal.

Orsolini’s cross found Ferguson for a diving header at the back post, forcing a difficult save, while Sam Beukema nodded an Orsolini corner over the bar.

Nicola Ravaglia struggled to deal with a Cristiano Biraghi free kick and M’Bala Nzola wasted two promising opportunities with misjudged finishing.

Instead, Bologna doubled their lead deep into stoppages on the counter-attack when Charalampos Lykogiannis whipped a cross from the left for Odgaard’s cushioned finish with the inside of the right foot at the back post. It was the January signing’s second goal in as many games.