Ollie Watkins enjoyed a feast in Italy’s culinary capital, scoring two second half goals against a pumped-up Bologna side to take a comfortable lead back to Birmingham and the prospect of a Europa League semi-final as a second courses.
Watkins’ double followed Ezri Konsa’s opening goal, and each goal was in some way due to Bologna errors. But they did not tell the whole story of the contest, with the Serie A side dominating much of the play. But after a flap by goalkeeper Federico Ravaglia had let Konsa in on the cusp of half-time, Villa managed the game effectively and responded to a late Bologna strike by their Englishman, Jonathan Rowe, by scoring a third in injury time.
Villa had beaten Bologna twice in the past 18 months of European competition, but both victories were narrow and both were at home. An away tie would be a different order of challenge, Unai Emery had warned, and he was proven right as Bologna dominated the opening half of play, only to reach the break a goal down.
Dominant in possession in the opening stages, Bologna were careful with the ball while Villa went direct and often looked ragged as a result. Bologna’s wingers were the most dangerous players on the pitch, and Federico Bernardeschi’s cross from the right was nearly turned in spectacularly by Juan Miranda in the 21st minute, but his scissor kick was scrambled behind.
It was on the left that Bologna got continual joy, with Rowe besting his duels with Matty Cash. A superb take on the chest from a direct pass sent the former Norwich man clear in the 26th minute and he teed up Santiago Castro whose shot bobbled up off Ezri Konsa and into the net despite Cash’s late clearance. The Renato Dall’Ara erupted, but the joy leaked away slowly as it transpired that the video assistant referee had got involved, ruling out the goal due to Castro’s toe being offside, albeit with no communication to anyone in the ground.
Rowe beat up on Cash again three minutes later and pulled a trivela cross to the penalty spot where Lewis Ferguson, the Bologna captain, met it with an open boot and crashed a shot off the underside of the bar, but this time the ball stayed in play.
There was both a sense of injustice in the ground and growing excitement after all that, but as the first half came to a close the latter ebbed away and the former intensified as Villa took an undeserved lead. Without Watkins, scrapping to hold the ball and keep possession on the halfway line with three minutes until half-time, nothing would have come to pass, but his hard work led to a corner and then another. Youri Tielemans’ second delivery was good but should have been cleared by goalkeeper Federico Ravaglia. Instead, and with no one near to him, he came and entirely missed the ball, with Konsa able to stoop and turn the ball home. Apparently self-conscious about his good fortune, he barely celebrated.
Things went from bad to worse for the hosts almost immediately after the restart. Bologna had already fashioned a chance through Rowe, Tommaso Pobega’s fierce drive flying over the bar, before Miranda made an error in possession on the edge of his own box. The Spaniard attempted a switch of play, but his pass was too fierce for Torbjørn Heggem and Emí Buendía smuggled the ball away from him and quickly teed up Watkins who was free in the box. The England man wasn’t about to pass up such an opportunity and, advancing on goal, he slipped a cool finish between Ravaglia’s legs. Five minutes later Morgan Rogers almost made it three, but his shot from the edge of the box also cleared the crossbar.
There was time yet for Rowe to leave his mark on the match, creating a number of opportunities in the final 15 minutes before he cut inside in the 90th minute to bend a beautiful right foot shot past Emí Martínez. The home crowd at last had something to cheer about, but almost immediately Villa won a corner up the other end, the ball cleared the entire Italian defence and Watkins poked it home.
