From one away match to another. Having returned from Amsterdam, the bianconeri did not have the time to unpack. On Saturday they will leave again, this time with Emilia as their destination. The reason for this trip is the away match on Sunday afternoon against Bologna.

Zaccheroni’s team is ready to play against that of Colomba, one of the most in form  teams at the start of the second round.

BOLOGNA IN HOME MATCHES

5 victories, 3 draws and 4 defeats: out of the 28 points collected up to now by Bologna, 18 were won at the Dall’Ara, where the goal scoring difference is significant (16 at home against the 9 away), while the number of goals conceded is nearly the same (16 against 15). The matches at home have had a zig zag pattern of results. The debut was against Fiorentina with a good 1-1 draw, followed by a 2-0 defeat against Chievo. The comeback came against Livorno with a 2-0 victory, which was immediately ruined after the 3-1 defeat against Genoa.

On the 10th and 12th match day, Bologna won back its public with 2 victories: 2-1 against Siena and 3-1 against Palermo. After the 2-1 defeat against Inter (notwithstanding a great goal by Zalayeta the negative result was already established during the first 45 minutes and only consolidated in the second half), the Emiliani managed to win against the Udinese resistance (2-1). The latest home matches confirm a tendency of no consistency: 0-1 against Cagliari, 2-2 against Atalanta, 2-1 against Bari and 0-0 against Milan in a match which saw the rossoneri hit a number of posts while the home team limited themselves to bringing home a draw without ever managing to threaten Abbiati’s goal.

Generally, Bologna is having an extraordinary second round. In the last 6 matches – amongst which is the postponed one of the 17th match day against Atalanta – the rossoblu won 12 points which took the team from the 4th place from the end of the table to a +5 point margin from the relegation zone.

COLOMBA’s MEN

Not having any European commitments, Bologna did not utilize the same number of players as other teams. Only 21 players have been fielded in the championship with defender Daniele Portanova leading with 23 appearances, followed by Roberto Guana with 22 and by goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano, defender Salvatore Lanna and forward Marco Di Vaio with 21.

Up to now, two players have been shown a red card: Britos and Di Vaio. When it comes to yellow cards the leader is Guna with 7 followed by Portanova with 6.

The team’s top-scorer is Di Vaio with 9 goals, even though he is injured and will therefore not be on the field against his former team Juventus. He is followed by Adailton with 5, Gimenez and Zalayeta (another former Juve player) with 3, Portanova and Mudingayi with 1.

HISTORY

The first success in Bologna in history saw Juventus win by 1-0 and this result became a classic with time, having occurred 10 times. 

Inaugurating the series is the goal by Munerati in 1929/30. This was repeated in 1953/54 with Praest as the match winner scoring on the 10th minute of the second half. Two years later, it was Angelo Caroli who scored on the day of his debut with Juve. The future writer/journalist scored in the starting minutes of the second half in a season which saw the rossoblu ending higher then Juve in the table.

Ten years later, in 1996, Brazilian national Cinesinho decided the match. The match is remembered for the 3 red cards shown: Leoncini for Juventus and Bulgarelli and Haller for Bologna. The German national was to become a very important player for Juventus. In 1976/77 it was Causio who entered the scorers’ list with a  goal 3 minutes before the final whistle. 

The match in 1990/91, which saw the return of former Gigi Maifredi in the city of the two towers as Juve coach, was resolved by a penalty. Roberto Baggio scored from the 11 metres on the 20th minute of the second half. Hungarian national Detari did not repeat this 10 minutes later. The next match is in April of 1997. The goal which established the final result was a personal stunner by Boksic who the defence simply could not stop.

The series continued in the new millennium. On the 22nd February 2004, Bologna is condemned by a winning incursion by Iuliano. Ten months later it is Pavel Nedved from a free-kick who made the difference. Finally, the last 1-0 result in favour of Juventus came in 2006/07 during the Serie B championship. It was Zalayeta, now a Bologna player, who scored the match winner, even though the match was characterised by controversy because not even the slow motion replays managed to decide whether the ball struck by the Uruguay national managed to cross the goal-line totally.