Bologna miss chance to move up to third after frustrating draw with Frosinone
The visitors were looking for their third straight clean-sheet win in Italy’s top flight for the first time since February 1973, but it was their struggling opponents who started the brighter here, with Walid Cheddira firing straight at the returning Lukasz Skorupski in search of his fourth goal in six games.
After seizing on Riccardo Calafiori’s misplaced pass, the Napoli loanee was soon denied again by the Poland international, before the latter was called into action once more just shy of the half-hour mark.
This time, he had to move sharply across his line to paw away Caleb Okoli’s effort, while at the other end, Riccardo Orsolini and Joshua Zirkzee registered harmless shots on target.
Frosinone boss Eusebio Di Francesco would definitely have been the happier of the two managers going into HT, with his opposite number Thiago Motta understandably taking off the yellow-carded Alexis Saelemaekers at the break and bringing on Kacper Urbanski to replace him. However, Bologna were unable to stamp their authority on the encounter after the restart.
In fact, they failed to test Stefano Turati until the 66th minute, when Orsolini produced a deft touch through to Michel Aebischer, but the Swiss midfielder couldn’t steer the ball under the Frosinone stopper, who stuck out a leg to prevent it from going in. That was Aebischer’s last action in the contest, as 21-year-old Giovanni Fabbian came on for him.
Two other Bologna substitutes, Charalampos Lykogiannis and Santiago Castro, then combined late on, only for Castro to divert tamely into Turati’s grateful gloves from Lykogiannis’ lovely cross, before Dan Ndoye, who also came off the bench, saw his shot pushed onto the woodwork by Turati in stoppage time and blazed the rebound over.
The result means that Bologna haven’t won in six away H2Hs, while Frosinone are a point adrift of safety ahead of the remainder of the weekend’s games.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Łukasz Skorupski (Bologna)
