Serie A

Football Italia

·7 December 2024

Serie A | Juventus 2-2 Bologna: Another last-gasp draw for Old Lady

Samuel Mbangula and Teun Koopmeiners snatched a stoppage-time Juventus draw after trailing 2-0 at home to Thiago Motta’s old club Bologna, their ninth stalemate in the last 13 rounds.

The injury crisis dragged on for the Bianconeri, who were still missing Weston McKennie, Nico Gonzalez, Douglas Luiz, Arek Milik, Gleison Bremer and Juan Cabal, but at least Dusan Vlahovic, Nicolò Savona and Vasilije Adzic returned. The Rossoblu won four of their last five in the league and got Tommaso Pobega back from suspension, but Riccardo Orsolini, Michel Aebischer, Charalampos Lykogiannis, Oussama El Azzouzi and Nicolò Cambiaghi were injured.

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See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.

Andrea Cambiaso charged down a Dan Ndoye strike in the opening minutes and it bent his ankle back, forcing him off injured. Ndoye came even closer moments later, thumping the base of the upright from the edge of the area after Santiago Castro with his back to goal knocked down a Juan Miranda cross.

Bologna were very aggressive and Miranda’s free kick was deflected onto the roof of the net by Tim Weah.

Pierre Kalulu ran a huge risk on 26 minutes when he caught Jens Odgaard’s heels running onto a long ball just outside the penalty area. The referee waved play on and VAR confirmed that decision, only because Odgaard did not have control of the ball as Mattia Perin came rushing out.

Bologna took the lead soon after, as Ndoye ran onto the Emil Holm slide-rule pass and a ferocious right-foot finish smashed into the roof of the net at the near post, as Perin had expecting him to go far stick.

TURIN, ITALY – DECEMBER 07: Dan Ndoye of Bologna is put under pressure by Jonas Rouhi of Juventus during the Serie A match between Juventus and Bologna at Allianz Stadium on December 07, 2024 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)

Nicolò Fagioli blasted over from 14 yards on the Francisco Conceicao pull-back, then the Portuguese winger’s curler was charged down by Jhon Lucumi.

Vlahovic controlled a Teun Koopmeiners pass well, only to then hesitate on the finish, allowing Bologna to close him down.

The Serbian was in a similar position in first half stoppages, this time the powerful volley on a Koopmeiners assist parried by Lukasz Skorupski at the near post.

Things got worse for Juventus after the restart, because Thiago Motta was shown a straight red card for dissent. Moments later, Bologna doubled their lead when Santiago Castro’s sublime back-heel flick nutmegged Federico Gatti to send Pobega clear on goal, beating Perin with a delightful dinked finish.

Juventus got back into it with the first Koopmeiners goal for the club, as Francisco Conceicao sent Danilo down the right and he pulled back from the by-line for the Dutch international to fire into the roof of the net from 12 yards.

Samuel Mbangula went down in the penalty area on 82 minutes, but did nothing to stay on his feet the moment he felt Holm behind him.

Mbangula did much better in stoppages when Vlahovic found him on the edge of the box, he took a touch and curled a wonderful right-footer into the far top corner to equalise.