The 2019/20 season is over, as is Antonio Rossi’s first season in charge of Bologna. In this blog we’ll be going over Bologna’s first campaign under Mister Rossi’s management, providing you with the final Serie A table & statistics, Coppa Italia winner & statistics and Bologna player statistics, player development & contract renewals. You will also find segments on “Derby Results”, “Italian Clubs In Europe” & Bologna’s “Five Year Plan Update”.
Serie A Table & Statistics
Carlo Ancelloti’s Napoli have won the Serie A title for the first time since the 1989–90 season. Napoli accumulated an incredible 88 points, beating off runners-up Juventus by 2 points, thus ending Juventus’s run of 8 straight Serie A titles.
Antonio Rossi guided his Bologna side to an incredible 3rd place finish in Serie A in just his first season in charge, thus qualifying for the UEFA Champions League. Bologna scored an impressive 81 goals, the second best in Serie A. Bologna conceded 47 goals, giving them the worst defensive record of the top 5 teams and equaling that of 7th placed Hellas Verona, 8th placed Lazio and 13th placed Torino. Bologna have qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in club history.
Elsewhere A.C Milan finished in 4th place, the final UEFA Champions League spot, while Milan’s biggest rivals Internazionale finished 3 points behind them in 5th place, having to settle for a UEFA Europa League spot along with 6th placed Roma and 7th placed Hellas Verona. Lazio missed out Europe by a single point.
At the bottom end of the table Sampdoria were shockingly relegated for a 5th time in club history, finishing 2 points behind Sassuolo, who remained safe in the Serie A for another season. Genoa fans celebrated around the city after hearing the news of Sampdoria’s relegation. Lecce and Brescia complete the trio of relegated clubs by travelling straight back down to Serie B, losing a combined 44 Serie A matches en route. Atalanta had a disappointing season compared to their previous, finishing in 12th place, perhaps playing in the UEFA Champions League took it’s toll on Gasperini’s team.
Mattia Destro lead the league in scoring with 29 goals, 3 goals more than Juventus’s reigning league MVP and now Capocannoniere runner-up Cristiano Ronaldo, who had 26 goals in 38 appearances. 20-year-old Italian Andrea Pinamonti impressed with 21 league goals whilst on loan at Genoa from Inter. It’s easy to see how Napoli scored the most goals in Serie A this season, with 3 players ranking in the top 10 league scorers. Hirving Lozano scored 21 goals on his debut season, Dries Mertens became Napoli’s all time top goalscorer during his 17 goal campaign and Arkadiusz Milik chipped in with 15 league goals.
Adrien Rabiot had a fantastic debut season at Juventus, leading the league with 20 assists, 6 better than the 2nd best assist maker José Callejón, who had 14 assists. Bologna had 3 of the top 7 assist makers in Serie A. Riccardo Orsolini finished with 12 assists, Nicola Sansone had 11 assists and Roberto Soriano had 10 assists.
Derby Results
Derby dell’Appennino:
Fiorentina 1-2 Bologna
Frank Ribéry ⚽
Mattia Destro ⚽⚽
Bologna 3-1 Fiorentina
Mattia Destro ⚽⚽ & Sebastiano Esposito ⚽
Riccardo Sottil ⚽
Derby dell’Emilia:
Bologna 3-1 Parma
Mattia Destro ⚽⚽⚽
Dejan Kulusevski ⚽
Parma 1-1 Bologna
Dejan Kulusevski ⚽
Sebastiano Esposito ⚽
Coppa Italia
Joey Saputo made it clear at the beginning of the season that Mister Rossi’s side must make it to at least the First Round proper of the Coppa Italia this season. That goal was completed after they made it past the two qualifying rounds and into the first round proper after defeating two Serie B sides. Bologna were then knocked out in the Coppa Italia First Round by Serie A side Torino at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino.
Third Qualifying Round:
Bologna 4-0 Cittadella
Mattia Destro ⚽⚽⚽ & Federico Santander ⚽
Fourth Qualifying Round:
Bologna 4-0 Frosinone
Mattia Destro ⚽, Riccardo Orsolini ⚽⚽ & Nicola Sansone ⚽
First Round:
Torino 5-2 Bologna
Andrea Belotti ⚽⚽⚽ & Simone Zaza ⚽⚽
Andreas Skov Olsen ⚽ & Jérémy Doku ⚽
2019/20 Player Statistics
Goals:
1. Mattia Destro (32)
2. Riccardo Orsolini (13)
3. Nicola Sansone (9)
4. Sebastiano Esposito (9)
5. Exequiel Palacios (5)
Assists:
1. Riccardo Orsolini (14)
2. Nicola Sansone (12)
3. Roberto Soriano (10)
4. Exequiel Palacios (9)
5. Sebastiano Esposito (6)
Average Rating:
1. Riccardo Orsolini 7.89
2. Nicola Sansone 7.63
3. Mattia Destro 7.60
4. Niklas Stark 7.38
5. Sebastiano Esposito 7.36
Awards
Mattia Destro won the 2020 Capocannoniere award for scoring the most amount of goals in the Serie A this season (2019/20). Destro became the third Italian in a row to win the award, with Ciro Immobile sharing the award in the 2017/18 season with Mauro Icardi & Fabio Quagliarella winning the 2018/19 award. Giuseppe Savoldi was the last Bologna player to win the Capocannoniere, back in the 1972/73 season.
Riccardo Orsolini beat Cristiano Ronaldo to the Serie A MVP award for 2020. Orsolini finished the Serie A campaign with 13 goals, 14 assists and an average player rating of 7.89. Orsolini was Bologna’s best player in a season which saw Bologna finish in 3rd place in Serie A. Juventus must regret selling Riccardo Orsolini to Bologna in the summer. Nicola Sansone finished 3rd in the award race after a very strong season.
Loan Watch & Development
Godfred Donsah had 3 goals, 7 assists and an average rating of 7.00 in 37 games for Cercle Brugge.
Jerdy Schouten had 5 goals, 5 assists and an average rating of 6.89 in 26 games for Luzern.
Michael Kingsley had 6 goals, 10 assists and an average rating of 7.72 in 40 games for Cremonese.
Federico Ravaglia had an average rating of 7.22 in 36 games for Gubbio.
Tommaso Cassandro had 4 goals, 5 assists and an average rating of 7.51 in 27 games for Novara.
Fabrizio Brignani had 3 goals, 3 assists and an average rating of 7.41 in 33 games for Cesena.
Alessio Militari to had 2 goals, 2 assists and an average rating of 7.02 in 35 games for Renate.
Juan Manuel Valencia had 2 goals, 8 assists and an average rating of 7.18 in 30 games for Cesena.
Future Star?
Michael Kingsley has remained the stand out of our loaned out players, scoring 6 goals, assisting 10 goals & averaging a 7.72 player rating in 40 games for Cremonese in the Serie B.
Contract Renewals
Riccardo Orsolini signed a new 5-year-deal on 35K per week.
Mattia Destro signed a new 2-year-deal on 55k per week.
Nicola Sansone signed a new 3-year-deal on 40k per week.
Roberto Soriano signed a new 2-year-deal on 40k per week.
Ladislav Krejci signed a new 2-year-deal on 20k per week.
Rodrigo Palacio decided to retire at the end of the season.
Łukasz Skorupski signed a new 2-year-deal on 35k per week.
Musa Juwara signed a new 5-year-deal on 10k per week.
Italian Clubs In Europe
Napoli reached the UEFA Champions League Final and were one game away from winning the treble. However, they had to settle with a runners up medal as they were defeated 2-1 by Barcelona.
AS Roma won the UEFA Europa League after defeating Lazio in an all-Italian Derby della Capitale Final, therefore becoming the 5th Italian side to qualify for the 2020/21 UEFA Championship League (Roma finished 6th in Serie A).
Elsewhere in Europe; Juventus were eliminated from the UEFA Champions League by Barcelona in the Quarter Final, Inter Milan were eliminated from the UEFA Champions League by Real Madrid in the Quarter Final & Atalanta were eliminated from the UEFA Champions League after finishing 4th in Group B.
Five Year Plan Update
Year 1: ‘Get Younger’ – Lower the first team’s average age of 28.
At the start of the summer mercato Bologna’s first team average age was 28, by the end of the mercato it had lowered by 2 years to 26.Year 1: ‘Top Half’ – Finish between 1st-10th in the Serie A.
Bologna finished 3rd in Serie A.
Year 1: ‘Cup Run’ – Reach the Coppa Italia 1st round.
Bologna reached the Coppa Italia 1st Round.
Year 1-5: ‘Philosophy’ – Stick to the Zona mista philosophy.
Bologna stuck to the Zona mista philosophy throughout the season.
Year 1-5: ‘Youth’ – Promote at least 1 academy player.
Antonio Rossi promoted 18-year-old Italian academy goalkeeper Thomas Fantoni to the first team. Fantoni started 8 games for Bologna, keeping 1 clean sheet.
Season one of “The Bologna Blog” is over and season two will soon begin. All feedback is welcomed and appreciated. I would also like to thank @ilpadrinofm for the graphical edits throughout the blog.
Next up – The Bologna Blog: Seconda Stagione (Season Two) | Prima Parte (Part One).
ZonaMistaFM 
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