Serie A | Bologna 2-0 Torino: VAR favours the hosts  

Bologna secured their third win in four matches in all competitions thanks to goals from Giovanni Fabbian and Joshua Zirkzee, both of which came after Nikola Vlasic had his goal chalked off over an offside call. 

Fabbian registered the game’s first shot after 90 seconds, firing an effort off the bounce just wide of the Torino goalposts. 

Vlasic then thought he had opened the scoring with a rifling effort just outside the edge of the penalty area. He had worked hard to recover a loose ball bouncing outside of the box, before swivelling and launching a rocket past Skorupski and into the roof of the net. 

However, after a lengthy VAR check, Vlasic’s goal had been chalked off as Duvan Zapata had been in the goalkeeper’s line of sight in an offside position. 

Zapata tried again from distance for Torino shortly afterwards, but his driven effort was palmed round the post for a corner. 

Torino were left infuriated when Riccardo Calafiori escaped without a booking after hauling down Vlasic just past the halfway line as he looked to mount a quick counter attack. 

Alessandro Buongiorno looked to put the ball in the net for Toro again from the resulting free kick, but his header cleared the crossbar. 

Cyril Ndoye threatened at the other end a few minutes later, however, his eventual effort was no cause for concern for Luca Gemello between the Torino sticks. 

The 23-year-old keeper was called into action again on the 37th minute, as he had to punch an awkward, lopping cross out of harm’s way. He did so comfortably for his first real involvement of the game. 

As the two teams made their way down the tunnel for half time, Torino were disappointed not to be ahead, and looked to be frustrated with the officials for some of the decisions that had not gone their way during the first period. 

Sanabria had a decent effort sail wide of the post 10 minutes into the second period. 

Approaching the hour mark, Fabbian was freed by Sam Beukema, before bursting towards the penalty area with plenty of work to do before rounding the onrushing Gemello. 

Gemello committed to coming out of his area, putting in a sliding challenge, which Fabbian was able to jump clear of before finishing into an empty net for the first legal goal of the game. 

On what was just his fifth Serie A appearance for Bologna, Fabbian registered his second league goal of the season. In doing so, he became the youngest midfielder in the league to score two or more goals this season. 

Admittedly, Fabbain’s goal had come against the run of play, but that would not stop Bologna from attempting to see the game out with just over half an hour to go. 

Raoul Bellanova was shown a yellow card midway through the second half for lashing out at Calafiori. The Torino wing-back needed to be escorted away before he got himself in any more trouble with the officials. 

Bologna’s defensive set-up made it difficult for Torino to find much of a breakthrough in the final stages of the game. 

Joshua Zirkzee came closest to finding the net at the end of proceedings, as he hit a shot from the edge of the area a few inches wide of Torino’s left upright. 

Moments later, Zirkzee had the ball in the back of the net, but he was initially thought to be offside when he broke past the Torino centre-backs on the halfway line. 

The decision was refereed to VAR, who took almost two minutes to make a decision, before ruling that Zirkzee was in fact onside, handing Thiago Motta’s side a 2-0 victory. 

Bologna now find themselves in sixth, settling nicely into Serie A’s Europa League places, while Torino still find themselves in the bottom half of the table in 12th.

Bologna 2-0 Torino

Fabbian 56′ (B), Zirkzee 90+1′ (B).

Source From: Football Italia

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