JAKARTA - AS Roma escaped defeat and drew 1-1 against Bologna in the first match of the Europa League 16th round at the Renato Dall'Ara Stadium, Friday, March 13, 2026 WIB. Midfielder Lorenzo Pellegrini saved Roma after scoring the equalizer in this duel between the Italian Serie A teams.
A clear Italian derby fight. The reason is that only two teams from Serie A eventually qualify for the knockout round. This makes Roma and Bologna have to fight each other for a ticket to the quarter finals.
Roma started the derby with a satisfactory result. After falling behind in the tight duel, I Giallorossi managed to escape defeat.
The result makes Bologna and Roma unable to ensure their qualification to the next round. There is still one more match that determines the steps of the two teams which will be held at Roma's home at the Olympic Stadium, Friday, March 20, 2026 early morning WIB.
This duel between Italian teams was indeed tight. Roma, who are ranked fifth in the Serie A standings, was under pressure from Bologna in the early minutes of the match.
Veteran midfielder Federico Bernardeschi already threatened the visiting team's goal when he received a pass from Jonathan Rowe. Only this 32-year-old player's opportunity failed to convert into a goal.
Roma slowly began to rise after successfully getting out of the pressure. Even the team coached by Gian Piero Gasperini got a chance through striker Bryan Zaragoza in the 19th minute. Receiving a pass from his tandem, Donyell Malen, his kick still narrowly missed the right side of the Bologna goal.
Furthermore, Bernardeschi again got two chances that could really open Bologna's victory. Including his kick which headed to the top right corner of the goal, but could be brilliantly saved by goalkeeper Mile Svilar and only resulted in a corner kick.
Entering the second half, Bologan continued to play aggressively pressing the Roma defense. The team coached by Vinzenco Italiano did not take long to break the deadlock.
It started with Rowe's action controlling the ball in the middle. He managed to escape two tackles made by Roma players before passing the ball to Bernardeschi. With the first kick, the former Juventus player who was not guarded by Roma players successfully broke into Svilar's goal.
This became the fourth goal of Bernardeschi, who is also a former Italian national team player in this season's European competition. The goal which was created in the 50th minute brought I Rossoblu ahead 1-0.
Falling behind first made Roma try to rise. This time Malen got the chance to equalize the score. Only his kick was still wide.
Furthermore, Bologna, who is currently in eighth place in the standings, has the opportunity to increase their lead through Tommaso Pobega who received a breakthrough pass from Bernardeschi. However, Slivar, who came out of the goal, managed to block his shot.
Even though Bologna were more active in attacking, their goal was finally conceded in the 70th minute. It was the fault of defender Joao Mario who failed to control the stray ball and was successfully intercepted by Bryan Cristante.
He took the ball to Bologan's defense and gave the ball to Malen. In a position surrounded by two Bologna players, Malen then passed the ball which was immediately finished by Pellegrini.
Pellegrini, who spent his career at Roma, only needed four minutes to break the Bologna goal. He was brought in by Gasperini to replace Neil El Aynaoui in the 66th minute. Not long after, Pellegrini managed to break the deadlock to tie the score at 1-1.
Even Roma almost turned the tide when Malen, who showed individual action, passed several players in the Bologna defense. But his final finish failed.
No goals were scored from both teams despite still having several opportunities from both Bologna and Roma. The 1-1 draw lasted until the final whistle.
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