Italiano: ‘Bologna went beyond expectations, Aston Villa are Champions League level’
Vincenzo Italiano explains his surprising tactical adjustments against Aston Villa, but insists Bologna ‘went beyond expectations’ reaching the Europa League quarter-finals.
The Rossoblu knew that it was a tough task after losing the first leg 3-1 at home, especially as they had already been beaten at Villa Park both in the Champions League last season, and in the Europa League group phase back in September 2025.
However, they were hoping for better than a 4-0 mauling in this second leg, especially as Federico Ravaglia also parried a Morgan Rogers penalty, only for Emiliano Buendia to score on the following throw-in.
Ollie Watkins, Rogers and a late acrobatic Ezri Konsa volley completed the rout, eliminating Bologna 7-1 on aggregate.
Bologna experiment didn’t work with Aston Villa
Italiano pulled a few surprises this evening, above all inverting his full-backs from their usual positions.
“Analysing this match is superfluous,” Italiano told Sky Sport Italia.
“We made too many mistakes in the first leg, so we tried to do something different with Joao Mario and Juan Miranda on opposite sides, because Villa are so good at defending the box when we get to the by-line. The idea was when defending that we’d cut inside on our stronger feet.
“That’s not the reason why we lost, it’s because Aston Villa are so incredibly clinical that they score with every chance. We hadn’t started badly, but when they score at the first chance and you are 4-1 down on aggregate, it all becomes more difficult.”
Despite the heaviness of the defeats, it must be noted that the only Europa League games Bologna lost this season were all against Aston Villa.
“We must learn lessons from the whole journey, recognise that right now Aston Villa have an extra gear compared to us. They probably belong in the Champions League more than the Europa League, and I believe they will win the trophy,” continued the coach.
“Our performance in the first leg was very strong, but we paid for too many distractions and errors. I don’t know if the difference between the teams is all that big, but all credit to them, they took every opportunity.
“I don’t think it was a tactical issue today, there was a big difference in quality level between the two teams, and we had to just hope they were not firing on all cylinders. You cannot gift them anything, and we did in both legs.”
Bologna are struggling mid-table and out of the Coppa Italia, so it seems frankly unlikely they will be in Europe again next season.
“This team is accustomed to playing regularly, we had over 100 games in the last two seasons. The moment we get to Bologna, we have to prepare for another tough match against Juventus, and hope to add more points in the season, fix those things that went wrong.
“We had hoped to cause Villa problems tonight, but they were ferocious in their pressing and didn’t allow us to do it. We reached the quarter-finals, our objective had been to get through the league phase, so I think our campaign has gone beyond expectations.
“You learn from this, we conceded on a throw-in today, that’s a lesson you cannot gift goals at this level. We reached the quarter-final, I think it was more than positive.”
It is going to be an all-English semi-final for the Europa League, as Nottingham Forest go head-to-head with Aston Villa, while Braga will face Freiburg.