‘It’s unthinkable’ – Bologna boss Italiano admits Milan caused ‘hurt’ in 3-0 defeat

Vincenzo Italiano believes that Bologna were punished for the mistakes they made at the back during their defeat to AC Milan.

Milan piled more misery on Bologna at the Stadio Renato dall’Ara on Tuesday night, as they ran out comfortable 3-0 winners. Ruben Loftus-Cheek fired in the first goal from Adrien Rabiot’s cut-back, then Christopher Nkunku won and converted a penalty, before Rabiot turned scorer.

The win means that Milan have now extended their unbeaten league run to 22 games, the longest run in Europe’s top five leagues. A seven-point gap has opened up over Roma who are in fifth place, while Inter remain five points away.

Bologna make ‘unthinkable’ errors

Italiano was interviewed by DAZN after his side’s defeat at the Stadio Renato dall’Ara, and his comments were relayed by MilanNews. Pressure is mounting on the Rossoblu, who have won one league game in their last 11.

Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images

Bologna seemed fired up at the start, but then lacked consistency…

“We were confident we’d prepared well for the match. We were coming off a good win and had approached the game well. However, summing up everything we’ve seen today and recently, we’re not managing to play two high-level games in a row, with great concentration, with the same solidity that we once had at such a high level.

“Now every slip-up costs us dearly, we’re a bit light at the back, and they hurt us. But what’s disappointing is that we can’t put together two good games right now. I liked the approach, even the second half, but right now we’re not managing to play one good game after another, and we need to work on that.

“It’s unthinkable that they’re putting us in trouble with a vertical ball… We had prepared for it, but we didn’t execute it very well.”

Did the Supercoppa loss have an impact on your side??

“Since then, we’ve lost some of our brilliance, some of our solidity, perhaps some of the confidence we’ve been showing in flashes. In some matches, it’s been us. I repeat, we’re unable to maintain this consistency of performance.

“I liked the way we prepared, we were coming in with great enthusiasm. New faces have also arrived, I was very confident. However, we have plenty of time to get things right, despite the ups and downs, if we find the key, we can fix everything.”