Italiano: ‘Bologna won’t give up, paid for errors with Roma’

“This team has not given up, we are here trying to sort out all the situations in a complicated match, but when you concede at the start and end of the half, those are the crucial moments where you cannot make a mistake,” Italiano told DAZN Italia.

“Goals in those moments really change the game. Then we hit the woodwork yet again too, I think we had a decent second half, but have conceded too many goals this season due to distractions and superficiality.

“Roma were not dominating us by any means, but they will make you pay for those errors. We had a negative spell in Serie A, then had four or five victories in a row. We never really had long periods of consistent results, and that was the difference from last season, losing so many home matches.

“Unfortunately, that has been the trend this term. We were unable to give our home fans this victory, they were quite right to jeer us, so we’ve got to roll our sleeves up against Cagliari and try to turn the tide.”

There was some controversy around the comments made by Italiano after the defeat to Juventus, where it was assumed he said the season was already over.

“That was only part of what I said, you need to have the whole thing,” replied the coach. “What I actually said was that we were out of the running for the Europa League and Champions League places, but we can lock down eighth place, that is what the club asked us for, and we are not giving up.

“You can win or lose, but we do have objectives and we won’t give in. I never like to lose, so evidently I was misunderstood, but I never implied that we had nothing to play for.”

BOLOGNA, ITALY – APRIL 25: Santiago Castro of Bologna FC competes for the ball with Evan Ndicka of AS Roma during the Serie A match between Bologna FC 1909 and AS Roma at Renato Dall’Ara Stadium on April 25, 2026 in Bologna, Italy. (Photo by Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Getty Images)

Italiano had pulled a surprise by starting Bologna with a 3-4-3 formation, something he had experimented with during matches, but not from the opening whistle.

Despite the struggle to make much impact in this game, he did not change that formation.

“We tried something a bit different to ensure Roma could not take control of the match, and I saw some positives. Roma often force you to get behind the line with their midfielders, but I feel we did well off the ball, we just allowed chances on the break when we misplaced passes. Roma were perhaps much more focused than they were in the other games against us, we did better in the second half, but we did the damage especially with that goal before half-time.

“Now in the last four games, we’ll see if we can reduce the malcontent that we felt today in the stadium.”

BOLOGNA, ITALY – APRIL 25: Neil El Aynaoui of AS Roma competes for the ball with Lewis Ferguson of Bologna FC during the Serie A match between Bologna FC 1909 and AS Roma at Renato Dall’Ara Stadium on April 25, 2026 in Bologna, Italy. (Photo by Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Getty Images)

Bologna had been unbeaten at home to Roma since 2020, but they were jeered off the field by their fans at the Stadio Dall’Ara this evening.

Even seventh place looks very unlikely now, and even that would only guarantee Conference League qualification if Lazio don’t win the Coppa Italia Final.