Bologna end winless Serie A run with 2-1 escape at Lecce
Riccardo Orsolini's scissor-kick volley and a late Jay Enem finish gave Raffaele Palladino his first win as Bologna coach, despite Lecce dominating the ball and chances.
Bologna finally won a Serie A match, beating Lecce 2-1 at the Stadio Via del Mare to give Raffaele Palladino his first victory since taking over from the sacked Domenico Tedesco, according to Football Italia.
Riccardo Orsolini opened the scoring after 17 minutes with an acrobatic scissor-kick volley from seven yards, finishing off a cross from the left by Nicolò Cambiaghi. Amar Fatah equalised for Lecce in the 64th minute, pouncing on a goalkeeping mistake, before Jay Enem restored Bologna's lead with his first Serie A goal in the 75th minute.
Palladino gets his first win built on a familiar left side
Bologna's two goals both traced back to the same combination down the left flank, with Cambiaghi supplying the service and finishing threat that turned both strikes. For Orsolini's opener, Cambiaghi floated a cross to the back post for the winger to meet with an overhead effort. For Enem's winner, Orsolini switched play out to Cambiaghi, who rolled the ball across for Enem to flick home with the outside of his boot from five yards.
That repeated pattern suggests Palladino is leaning on the understanding between his most advanced attackers rather than reshaping the team wholesale in his second game in charge. He had drawn 1-1 with Torino on his managerial debut, and here was missing Samuel Mbangula, Jens Odgaard and the long-term absentee Emil Holm, limiting his attacking options. Matteo Darmian, signed as a free agent, was handed an immediate start in defence, a sign that Palladino is prepared to trust new arrivals straight away rather than ease them in.
Lecce's goalkeeper errors shaped a game they otherwise controlled
Lecce finished with 57 per cent of possession to Bologna's 43 and registered 19 shots to the visitors' 10, a split that points to a side who dominated territory and chance creation without turning it into the scoreline their performance merited. Much of that owed to their own goalkeeper. Massimo Pessina misjudged a cross from Danilo Veiga, failing to account for Fatah lurking behind him, and the Lecce forward headed into an empty net from 12 yards to level the match.
Pessina was also exposed moments later, pushing a free kick from Oumar Ngom over his own bar and nearly fumbling another cross before Torbjørn Heggem cleared the danger. At the other end, Wladimiro Falcone showed the value of experience between the posts, racing off his line to block a long ball from Nadir Zortea at the feet of Orsolini and denying Juan Miranda with a save at the base of his near post after a slip let Konan N'Dri through.
A ten-man finish still held off a spirited Lecce response
Bologna were reduced to ten men in the 84th minute when Orsolini went off with a new muscular injury after the visitors had already used all five substitutions, leaving Palladino's side to see out the closing stages a man light. Lecce pushed hard for a second equaliser in that spell: Pessina flew across his own goal to claw out a header from Lassana Coulibaly off a Konan N'Dri cross, and Willem Geubbels headed over from another delivery soon after.
Eusebio Di Francesco's side had arrived with two wins already this season, over Venezia and Monza, but were missing Nikola Stulic and Medon Berisha to injury, while Geubbels and Paco Esteban were short of full fitness. Lecce's spell of territorial dominance in the second half, including a flurry of corners and late chances, reflects a team capable of creating problems even when missing key personnel, but one still searching for the cutting edge to turn pressure into points.
The result leaves both clubs in the lower half of the table after matchday six, with Bologna finally off the mark for the season and Lecce left to reflect on a performance that generated plenty of chances but not enough reward.