Vincenzo Italiano's Bologna: A Goal Machine in Serie A

"Score a goal!" he shouted like a madman Vincenzo Italiano to his boys when on the Valles pitch, during the summer retreat, the team tried out plays without opposition from the defence and the goalkeeper was the only bulwark between the posts.

Nine months later we can safely say that that advice fired at a thousand decibels has entered like a mantra in the heads of his players: but above all that 'suggestion' has been listened to and put into practice. With the film library seal reported at Easter by Ursu with Inter the rossoblù's goal tally in the league rose to 52.

moral: Bologna fourth in the standings (waiting for Parma-Juve tonight at the Tardini) and fourth in the goals scored ranking. A joyful goal machine, that of Vincenzo Italiano, who after 33 games is placed behind only Inter (72 goals), Atalanta (66) and Lazio (53) equaling the performance of Napoli (also at 52).

A year ago, for comparison, Motta's super Bologna had stopped at 48. And to find a more prolific Bologna than this one, we have to go back in history to the year of grace 1997-98, with Renzo Ulivieri on the bench: the goal counter after 33 matchdays twenty-seven years ago reached 53.

Great strength, you might say, if there's a champion like him up front. Roberto Baggio, who closed the championship that year with a haul of 22 goals. There is no Baggio today even if Orsolini, in his small way (small only when compared to a giant of the ball like the Divine Ponytail), this season has given us pearls that are not out of place in comparison with the jewels scored by Baggio in 1997-98.

To return to a concept dear to Ulivieri Italiano, he assembled a goal-scoring machine that is now a cooperative, where everyone gets their hands and shorts dirty in the mud and everyone, or almost everyone, then goes to the cashier bringing home the most precious fruit: the goal, precisely.

In the championship, 15 rossoblù players have already scored: a list that starts with Orsolini's 12 goals and ends with those who stopped at one, see De Silvestri, Holm, Ferguson and Cambiaghi (ditto Iling-Junior, Karlsson and Urbanski, who left Casteldebole in January).

Castro, who in his second season in Serie A reached 8 goals, which rise to 10 if you take the Coppa Italia into account, was a result that was far from a foregone conclusion, even if the real exploit was made by Ndoye, who in a few months went from being allergic to goals to becoming a goalscorer.

Odgaard also made a big leap forward in the scoreboard with 6 goals scored, one more than Dallinga, who stopped at 5 between the league and the Italian Cup. And now full speed ahead.

As Vincenzo Italiano, who was suspended for one match yesterday after being sent off against Inter (Niccolini will be on the bench on Monday in Udine), knows well, goals are the most effective fuel for fueling the Champions League dream. Especially those scored at the Dall'Ara.

It was since 1942-43 that the rossoblù in Serie A had not scored in 13 consecutive home games. Juve warned, thinking about the May 4th crossover.