Bologna stuns Inter after Lazio faltered

Juventus has now gained the upper hand in defense of their Scudetto after Inter Milan recorded a shocking 2-1 defeat against ten men, Bologna, at the Guissepe Meaza.

Inter was high in confidence after bashing already relegated Brescia 6-0 in their last fixture. But they were undone by a resolute Bologna who came back from behind to secure a memorable 2-1 win.

To keep the squad fresh, Antonio Conte made some changes that see Christian Eriksen and Romelu Lukaku returning to the starting line eleven with the 3-4-1-2 formation. With Nicolò Barella, Victor Moses, and Stefano Sensi out injured, while Milan Skriniar was serving a suspension, Marcelo Brozovic returned to the starting XI after overcoming a muscular problem.

Bologna was without Andrea Poli, Federico Santander, Ibrahima Mbaye, and Andreas Skov-Olsen.

Inter almost got a gift from Mitchell Dijks due to a terrible over-hit back-pass that was hard for  Lukasz Skorupski to clear, but the keeper was up to the task.

Lukaku thought he had found the back of the net on 13 minutes, only for it to be disallowed because the ball struck his hand when turning the defender.

Samir Handanovic also got away with a poor pass, as inrushing Brozovic helped to stop Nicola Sansone from punishing the hosts.

Inter finally broke the deadlock through the big Belgian forward from Lautaro Martinez’s header from Ashley Young cross. The cross that came in from the left headed by the Argentine, but it cannoned off the far post,  with Lukaku on hand to tap in the rebound from six yards to record his 20th Serie A goal of the season.

With dominating, they couldn’t double their lead. They further got the numerical advantage in the second interval when Roberto Soriano was given the marching order for insulting the referee.

Inter’s pressure counted when Candreva was fell in the box an easy challenge from Dijks, and they got a  penalty. But Martinez failed to convert the resulting spot-kick, saved by Skorupski, who also stopped Roberto Gagliardini’s follow-up from entering his net.

Bologna then got the momentum, and 18-year-old Musa Juwara restored parity for them after  Gagliardini failed to clear the ball properly from goal. The teenager hit it first-time from the edge of the box, and it went into the near bottom corner to record his debut Serie A goal.

They added to Inter’s misery after Juwara was too hard for Alessandro Bastoni to mark, and the player received a second yellow card, reducing Inter to 10 men.

The momentum switched to Bologna’s favour, and Musa Barrow, who was unmarked in the box, got them the winner through Nicolas Dominguez’s cross-field pass. His angled drive beta Handanovic to get them what would eventually be the final and winning goal ten minutes to the end of the encounter.

 

Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed