ROME (AP) — Exactly four months have passed since Bologna qualified for the Champions League to reach Europe’s elite competition for the first time in 60 years.
Now comes the tough part.
Bologna hosts Shakhtar Donetsk next week without four key members of the team that exceeded all expectations by finishing fifth in Serie A last season.
Coach Thiago Motta announced he was leaving a day before last season ended and then took over at Juventus; star forward Joshua Zirkzee left for Manchester United and defender Riccardo Calafiori followed him to the Premier League by signing with Arsenal after his revelatory performance for Italy at the European Championship.
Add in that club captain Lewis Ferguson is out for another couple of months with an injured knee and it’s no wonder that Bologna has struggled at the start of Serie A with only two points from three matches entering a game at promoted Como on Saturday.
But new coach Vincenzo Italiano comes in with positive experience in Europe, having directed Fiorentina to successive Conference League finals (plus an Italian Cup final), and Bologna has reacted well to hardship before.
Motta stepped into a difficult situation at Bologna when he was hired to replace the fired Sinisa Mihajlovic shortly after the start of the 2022-23 season.
Mihajlovic, who died a few months later after a long battle with leukemia, created a special bond with his players, who often celebrated victories under the coach’s hospital room window when Mihajlovic was being treated.
“We need to raise our game,” said Bologna defender Lorenzo De Silvestri, who is in his fifth season with the club. “The difficulties increase because the bar has been raised, and when the bar is raised you need to search for a higher level.”
Bologna finished ninth in Motta’s first season and went four spots better last season.
“This is a group that has improved year after year, season after season,” De Silvestri said. “We need to be ready for this new challenge, but we should also keep a smile on our faces, because we should always remember that it’s been a beautiful path to get here.”
While Bologna is a seven-time Serie A champion, the Emilia-Romagna club last triumphed in 1964. Its only other appearance in the continent’s top competition came later in 1964 when Bologna was eliminated by Anderlecht in the preliminary round of the old European Cup.
Hosting Champions League games seemed a like a stretch when Canadian executive Joe Saputo purchased Bologna a decade ago.
Now a reality, Bologna Mayor Matteo Lepore bestowed Saputo with honorary citizenship of the city during a ceremony on Wednesday.
“(Saputo) invested in Bologna and nobody will ever forget seeing the city celebrate qualifying for the Champions League,” the mayor said. “Just like he maintained his promise of qualifying for Europe when he arrived 10 years ago.”
Saputo said he now spends more time in Bologna than his home in Montreal. One of his sons, Luca, works for the club and another, Jesse, plays for Bologna’s youth club.
“When I bought the club, my intent was to build from the bottom up, sort of like how today’s coaches operate,” Saputo said. “The results on the field are the fruits of a tree that has deep roots and a thick trunk, which we’ve been working on for years.”
Bologna’s second Champions League match comes a day before the club celebrates the 115th anniversary of the its founding.
“At midnight on Oct. 3 we’ll be at Anfield, one of the most famous stadiums in world soccer and we’ll have just played Liverpool in the Champions League,” Saputo said. “I think (former Bologna president Renato Dall’Ara — the man for whom Bologna’s stadium is named for) would be proud — like all of us Bolognesi.”
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