Preview

September 18, Bologna, Renato Dall'Ara, 19:45
The live broadcast will be available on Megogo

History and path to the UCL

Bologna are debutants in the UEFA Champions League league phase. The club, founded on October 3, 1909, became the champion of Italy 7 times in its history, although 6 titles were won before 1941, with the last triumph dating back to the 1963/64 season. In the same 1964, the Red-and-Blues played in the Champions Cup qualifiers against Anderlecht and lost to the Belgians in an unusual way – after a coin toss. The last time the team participated in European competitions was in August 2002, when they lost to Fulham in the Intertoto Cup final. In the last 2 decades, the club did not have much success in the domestic arena and was even relegated to Serie B twice. However, everything changed in the 2023/24 season, when Bologna led by Thiago Motta had an outstanding campaign and finished 5th in Italy's Serie A, qualifying for the main European club competition, the Champions League.

Squad and leaders

In the summer, the architect of this success, Thiago Motta, left the club to join Juventus, and 46-year-old Vincenzo Italiano became the new head coach of Bologna. He is known for his work with Fiorentina (2021-2024), where he twice led the team to the UEFA Conference League final. The team also lost two leaders: defender Riccardo Calafiori moved to Arsenal London for EUR 45 million, while striker Joshua Zirkzee joined Manchester United for around the same amount. At the same time, the club conducted an active transfer campaign, acquiring 7 performers. The most famous of them is 32-year-old midfielder Remo Freuler, who moved from Nottingham, and the most expensive purchases were Dutch striker Tejs Dallinga from Toulouse (EUR 15 million) and Italian forward Nicolo Cambiaghi from Atalanta (EUR 10 million). Vincenzo Italiano prefers a 4-3-3 tactical formation, and in the current line-up, it is worth mentioning main goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski (Poland), defence leader Sam Beukema (Netherlands), captain Lewis Ferguson (Scotland) (currently injured) and right winger Riccardo Orsolini, who became the second scorer of the Red-and-Blues last season with 10 goals.

Start of the 2024/25 season

Bologna had a difficult start to the new season: Vincenzo Italiano's men have no wins and only 3 draws with 1 loss in 4 rounds of Serie A. Having shared the points at the start of the championship with Udinese (1-1), Bologna then lost away to Napoli (0-3), tied with Empoli (1-1), and in the last round, conceded 2 goals but equalized in the match against Como (2-2). Orsolini, Fabbian, Iling-Junior and Castro scored in these games

Head-to-head record

The team will lock horns for the first time in the competitive match.

The Bologna vs Shakhtar match will be officiated by the judging panel from Norway: referee Rohit Saggi, assistants Morten Jensen and Anders Olav Dale. VAR referee Jerome Brisard (France).