Bologna di Italiano: from the victory with Lazio to the challenge for the Coppa Italia

The manifesto of perfection of the Bologna of Italian it's the 5-0 with Lazio on March 16 at the Dall'Ara. Castro and Ndoye on target and in top form, all the big guns skilled and enlisted and the fifth seal, Fabbian's lightning header to crown a textbook ball possession, which then went viral on the web to tell how beautiful and incisive was the football of a Bologna that had returned to see the stars and was ready to continue dreaming big. It's a shame that in the meantime that dominant and healthy Bologna has lost some of its tracks.

There is a fact that stands out and paints a good picture of the decline in performance in recent weeks: the five goals that stunned Baroni's team on March 16 are the offensive spoils that the rossoblù have 'spread' over the following 7 league games. From the last three away games (against Atalanta, Udinese and Milan) Bologna has returned with just one point, something that would not have happened to the glittering Bologna of almost two months ago. A sign that today's heroes are a bit worn out and more than a grain of sand has slipped into the gears of what was then a perfect machine.

But it is with the car that skidded on Friday night in the Meazza curves that on Wednesday at the Olimpico Bologna will try to write a page of history aiming straight for a trophy, the Coppa Italia, who has not entered the Casteldebole trophy cabinet for more than half a century. And he will have to do it again with Milan, who on the contrary, at the end of a season made up more of shadows than lights, today seems to be in excellent health.

It's not a scenario that legitimizes carefree optimism in Casteldebole (certain lost looks in the post-match rossoblù on Friday were eloquent) but neither is it the widespread defeatism that took hold in the comments after the slip-up against Milan.

If it is obvious to remember that in a one-off final match anything can happen, it is instead news that yesterday in one fell swoop Italiano re-embraced in the group three big names like ndoye, Odgaard e Holm. All spared in the final key on Wednesday, it will be said. And this is precisely one of the criticisms that many on social media are making in these hours to Vincenzo Italiano, guilty, according to such ungenerous judgments, of having sacrificed the championship on the altar of a final that for him, who has lost three finals in a row, has become almost an obsession. In reality Italiano has not sacrificed anything at all: he is only trying to ration his strength in a season finale in which, between injuries and drops in condition, those same strengths have failed.

After all, competing on three fronts (league, Champions League and Coppa Italia) wears down those who do not have the same squads as Inter, Napoli, Atalanta, Juve, Roma and Milan, all clubs that have spent much more on the market than Bologna. As for the tactical importance of having given the go-ahead to the Rossoneri comeback on Friday, conceding the goal for 1-1 by Gimenez with the usual 'very high' formation and the carefree attitude of those who never give up attacking, it is the beauty of Italian football: with its strengths and weaknesses. A coach can change details but not give up his own DNA. Even now that the road to Europe passes through the eye of the needle at the Olimpico.