MILAN (AP) — And there were three.
Bologna are level at the top of Serie A with Inter Milan and Roma on 24 points after beating Udinese 3-0 on Saturday, despite Riccardo Orsolini’s rare penalty miss.
Orsolini, the league’s top scorer, recovered from the mistake and set up Tommaso Pobega for the first of his two goals.
Roma visit Cremonese on Sunday, just before Inter take on Milan in a city derby.
Milan are just two points short of the top three, level with Napoli, who play Atalanta later on Saturday.
Juventus drew 1-1 with bottom-place Fiorentina, leaving them with 20 points.
Bologna struggled to break down Udinese, but they were given a golden opportunity just before half-time when Udinese defender Kingsley Ehijibwe blocked Pobega’s shot with his elbow.
However, Maduka Okoye saved Orsolini’s penalty. Orsolini had converted 15 of his previous 16 spot kicks.
Orsolini thought he had his goal back minutes later, but his intended goal was ruled out for offside.
Bologna broke the deadlock in the 54th minute. Orsolini beat down a cross-field pass, cut inside and rolled it wide for Pobega to score into the bottom left corner.
To make matters worse, Udinese scored their second goal of the game six minutes later when Pobega intercepted a poor pass from Okoye.
Udinese were undeterred and once again fell into disarray in stoppage time when they tried to play in from the back, allowing Federico Bernardeschi to slot the ball into an empty goal.
The brilliance of a former player
Juventus struggled against Fiorentina and the high-spirited Moise Kean team, resulting in three consecutive draws.
Kean, 25, who started his career at Juventus, is back from a shin injury and was Fiorentina’s most threatening player in the first half, hitting the crossbar.
Juventus took the lead in the sixth minute of stoppage time with Filip Kostic’s powerful 25-yard shot.
So much time was added because play had to be stopped. racist chants There was also a lengthy video review that led to the penalty awarded to Juventus, which was directed at Serbian and former Fiorentina forward Dusan Vlahovic, to be rescinded.
Fiorentina equalized just after half-time when two former Juve players and Keane combined to fire a long-range shot into the top corner of Rolando Mandragola.
Elsewhere, Daniele De Rossi’s Genoa drew 3-3 with Cagliari in the relegation battle. Genoa are level with Parma in 17th place, three points behind Cagliari.
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AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
