Bologna manager Vincenzo Italiano has had his say on the Anfield atmosphere after his side’s 2-0 Champions League defeat to Liverpool
Vincenzo Italiano has admitted he was left in awe of the Anfield atmosphere in Bologna’s 2-0 defeat to Liverpool on Wednesday night. Goals in either half from Alexis Mac Allister and Mohamed Salah ensured the Reds’ first home game in the competition since February 2023 ended with a hard-fought 2-0 victory.
After qualifying for the Champions League for the first time since 1964 after a fifth-place finish in Serie A last season, Bologna proved to be awkward opposition.
The Italians refused to roll over for Arne Slot‘s side, who had won seven of their eight games in all competitions before the encounter
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But Bologna manager Italiano revealed that he and his players were left in awe of the atmosphere inside Anfield in the early stages of of the game before Mac Allister opened the scoring in the 11th minute by converting Salah’s cross.
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“Playing in a stadium like this makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up,” said the 46-year-old in his post-match press conference.
“The opposition players, playing at home, are lifted up by this support around the stadium. I think in the first few minutes we found this difficult to come to terms with.”
He added: “Me and the rest of the team feel like we need to take something away from this.
“We will show them clips of the nice moments they had in certain areas in midfield and tell them this is the Bologna we want to see until the end of the season.”
Italiano’s opposite number Slot was pleased to mark his first Champions League match at Anfield as Reds boss with a victory.
“It was a good first experience because it was a win,” he said. “It wasn’t an easy one but that’s normal if you play Champions League. There is always a lot of resistance, a lot of good teams play in the Champions League and Bologna is one of them.
“You can also see the results tonight where we saw maybe some surprising results. It was good to win. Clean sheet, some good individual performances. Positive overall.”
