Serie A | Pisa 0-1 Bologna: Odgaard magic guarantees victory
A moment of magic from Jens Odgaard gave Bologna all three points, but Pisa were frustrated by Lukasz Skorupski and a goal-line clearance.
The arrival of new Pisa coach Oscar Hiljemark has not steadied the ship with a draw and two defeats, even if they were at least tight results. Daniel Denoon and Simone Scuffet were still out of action. The Rossoblu seemingly ended their crisis run, celebrating back-to-back Serie A victories and setting up a Europa League Round of 16 clash with Roma. Juan Miranda, Charalampos Lykogiannis and Torbjorn Heggem missed the trip.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
Martin Vitik charged down a powerful Marius Marin screamer with his face in the opening minutes, and although he tried to continue, it left him dazed and was eventually substituted after 21 minutes.
Mehdi Leris just failed to get on the end of a Stefano Moreo cross at the back post, but Santiago Castro should’ve done better when blasting over after shrugging off Antonio Caracciolo to go clear on goal.
Castro had another massive opportunity when sent through by an inspired Nikola Moro slide-rule pass, but his angled drive beat Nicolas only to bounce off the inside of the far post.
After the restart, Lukasz Skorupski had to make two big saves in quick succession. First he was at full stretch to palm a dangerous cross away as Leris was sliding in unmarked at the back post to tap in, then on the resulting corner he pushed a Moreo free header out from under the bar.
Castro saw his strike deflected onto the side-netting by Francesco Coppola, but Skorupski needed another extraordinary save, getting down to push the Gabriele Piccinini angled drive inches wide of the far post after a well-worked team move.
When Skorupski was finally beaten by a looping Filip Stojilkovic header, he was rescued by the Nadir Zortea goal-line clearance.
Instead, the deadlock was broken by a moment of magic in the final minute of normal time. Jens Odgaard gathered with his back to goal outside the area and turned to smash an unstoppable strike into the near top corner.
Pisa 0-1 Bologna
Odgaard 90 (B)