‘Take us to Europe’: Bologna invigorated as Thiago Motta leads Lazio comeback

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Maurizio Sarri called it an “ambush” from Serie A officials, scheduling his Lazio side to face Bologna early at 12.30pm on Sunday after a midweek Champions League clash with Bayern Munich. “We want to thank the league for doing it again,” he said bitterly. “Just like they did after our Coppa Italia derby against Roma.”

Maybe he had a point. Then again, think what Bologna had to put up with. They played a big game of their own on Wednesday night, hosting Fiorentina, who are their direct competition in the fight for European qualifications. Now they had to go on short rest to Lazio: conquerors Bayern Munich.

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But Thiago Motta had a different view. “A great day, a great situation, we hope it will be a good game,” said the Bologna manager during his pre-match interview with Sky. “We are a team that always comes to play their own game, to play our own football. We will try to do that again.”

The contrasting habits of these managers was an entertaining subplot. There are rarely weeks when Sarri has nothing to do either, although he combines his cynicism with self-deprecating humour. An invitation to define “Sarrismo” last season – a word usually translated in English as “Sarriball” but literally meaning “Sarri-ism” – he replied: “My wife might say: ‘A moody man and a bit of a dickhead.’”

Motta, 24 years his junior, is a different persona: the shiny new thing in Italian football, enjoying his breakout season as a coach. Maybe this world looks different too, when you’ve already been there and won it all as a player: Champions League (twice), La Liga (twice), Serie A, Ligue 1 (five times) – just to name a few. of the highlights.

Their paths collided at a crucial moment. Lazio’s victory over Bayern was historic, their first Champions League win in 24 years, but their prospects of returning to the competition next season have been complicated by a slow start to the campaign. Joint seventh in the table and five points behind Bologna, they needed a positive result.

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Meanwhile, Motta’s side were looking to maintain momentum after beating Fiorentina 2-0 on Wednesday night. Unlike Lazio, who finished second last May, Bologna did not start this season with any expectations of fighting for the top places. But going into this weekend they were fourth on points with Atalanta.

For Sarri’s nostalgia about the early kick-off, his team started brightly. Ciro Immobile’s man has looked unburdened since hitting his 200th Serie A goal against Cagliari earlier this month and thought he had his fourth when he teed up Lukasz Skorupski in the 13th minute before seeing the man’s flag raised lines. Instead, he assisted on Gustav Isaksen’s opener minutes later.

The 22-year-old Denmark international has struggled since joining from Midtjylland in the summer, but his performances have improved over the past three months and it was Immobile’s penalty winner against Bayern . A team missing the injured Mattia Zaccagni on the other side of his direct run desperately needs a willingness to take his man from the right wing.

Lazio have struggled to establish a new attacking identity following Sergej Milinkovic-Savic’s move to Al Hilal. They could not have expected a player who combines the target man’s 6ft 4in frame with the nimbleness of No. 10 and a box-to-box midfielder work rate, but there was hope that the summer of Isaksen, Daichi Kamada and Taty Castellanos may allow the team to grow in another direction.

When Lazio have had success, for example against Bayern, it has often been a testament to Sarri’s quickly drilled zonal marking schemes that keep opponents far from the goal. They have kept 11 clean sheets across all competitions, the most, with Lille, among teams from the ‘big five’ in Europe.

They had a chance to put the game to rest against Bologna. In the 30th minute, Isaksen cut in from the right, bouncing off one defender and avoiding a second before firing a shot between two more. Skorupski denied it with a runner to save the season, pushing the ball into the post with the tips of the only two fingers he could reach.

Bologna were then awarded an equalizer before half-time. Luis Alberto’s goal to Ivan Provedel was not tipped but the goalkeeper’s attempt to play the next ball short with four Bologna players in front of him in the box was maddening. Giovanni Fabbian intercepted, and Oussama El Azzouzi finished.

The second half was a completely different story, with Bologna dominating the pitch. Sarri’s replacement of Immobile and Isaksen didn’t help, their substitutes Castellanos and Pedro failed to influence the game, but it was a hit as the home team collapsed. Perhaps this was partly the fatigue of playing long stretches out of possession for the second time in four days.

But it also spoke to the nature of Motta’s Bologna: a team that always plays out from the back when they have the ball and go against their opponents when they don’t. With the third youngest starting XI, on average, in all of Serie A, one part of his success is the ability to wear down his opponents.

Torino 2-0 Lecce, Internazionale 4-0 Salernitana, Atalanta 3-0 Sassuolo, Verona 2-2 Juventus, Napoli 1-1 Genoa, Lazio 1-2 Bologna, Empoli 1-1 Fiorentina, Udinese 1-1 Cagliari, Frosinone 0 -3 Roma, Monza 4-2 Milan

This is not a team full of superstars. Lewis Ferguson has been excellent all season and right wing Riccardo Orsolini is playing the best football of his life. But the former only started twice for the Scottish national team and the latter, at 27, made each of his appearances for Italy off the bench.

The one talent that stands out may be 22-year-old Dutch forward Joshua Zirkzee, a natural connector whose free-roaming interpretation of the No. to attack runners in. He helped create the goal that decided this match, and then finished, feeding a pass to left-back Victor Kristiansen on the overlap before hitting the rebound with a half-volley into the bottom corner.

A 2-1 win allowed Bologna to keep pace with Atalanta, who thumped Sassuolo 3-0 on Saturday night. The Bergamo club have a game in hand, but it’s away to Inter. With the Nerazzurri breaking away from the pack in first place, the race for Champions League places is sure to be fierce.

Juventus and Milan look certain to take two places but the field is wide open behind them. Roma’s renewed form under Daniele De Rossi has moved them above Fiorentina, Lazio and Napoli into sixth place. But even the bottom club, nine points behind Bologna with a game in hand, may not be out of the picture yet – especially with talk of a second managerial change this season.

Serie A could send five teams to next season’s Champions League instead of the usual four. Lazio’s win over Bayern strengthened Italy’s top spot in the coefficient rankings. It could be the team that wins this weekend – Bologna – who will benefit.

Motta isn’t ready to think about that yet, insisting “There’s still a long way to go”. The 500 fans who waited with flags and fireworks to meet the team on his return to Bologna are several steps ahead of him. “Take us to Europe,” they sang.