Bologna snatched their first victory of the Serie A season with a Riccardo Orsolini scissor-kick volley and Jay Enem, but Lecce had more than a few chances to equalise.
This was a relegation tussle already, but surprisingly one where the Rossoblu were still winless. Raffaele Palladino earned a 1-1 draw with Torino on his debut after replacing sacked Domenico Tedesco, but here missed Samuel Mbangula, Jens Odgaard and long-term absentee Emil Holm. Matteo Darmian was in the squad for the first time after signing on as a free agent and thrown straight into the starting XI.
Lecce had two victories this season against Venezia and Monza, but lost Nikola Stulic and Medon Berisha to injury, with Willem Geubbels and Paco Esteban not at 100 per cent either.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
Nicolò Cambiaghi couldn’t keep his early finish on target from a tricky angle, but Bologna took the lead in truly spectacular fashion. Cambiaghi floated a ball in from the left to the back post, finding an acrobatic Riccardo Orsolini scissor-kick volley from seven yards.
Nadir Zortea saw his daisy-cutter smothered by Wladimiro Falcone, but Lecce lost Ivan Ilic to injury after 36 minutes.
A decisive Juan Miranda interception prevented Esteban going clear on the Lassana Coulibaly through ball, then almost scored at the other end, forcing Falcone into a tricky save at the base of the near post.
There was controversy straight after the restart, as Paco Esteban was brought down by goalkeeper Matteo Pessina, but the referee awarded a free kick for the earlier Esteban push on Nicolò Casale instead.
Orsolini came sliding in a second too late to meet the Cambiaghi roll across from the left, then his corner was flicked on by Casale beyond Tommaso Pobega at the back post.
Konan N’Dri made the most of a Miranda slip only to be blocked off by Casale at the near post, but moments later Lecce got the equaliser.
Young goalkeeper Massimo Pessina was a little too confident coming out to pluck a Danilo Veiga ball out from the air, as he didn’t realise Amar Fatah was hovering and snuck in for the header into an empty net from 12 yards.
Pessina pushed the Omar Ngom free kick over the bar, the Bologna goalkeeper almost made another mess of a cross and was saved by the Helland clearance.
Falcone showed his experience and rushed off his line to slap the long Zortea ball off the feet of Orsolini, but Bologna did manage to restore their lead.
Orsolini’s cross-field pass sent Cambiaghi down the left, he rolled across and Jay Enem flicked in off the outside of the right boot from five yards for his first Serie A goal.
Bologna went down to 10 men at the 84th minute, as they had completed all their substitutions when Orsolini went down with a new muscular injury.
Lecce poured forward, Pessina flying to claw the Coulibaly header out of the top corner from a Konan N’Dri cross, then flailing on another cross for Willem Geubbels to nod over.
Lecce 1-2 Bologna
Orsolini 17 (B), Fatah 64 (L), Enem 75 (B)
Player statistic
| Ivan Ilić | 10' | |||
| 17' | Riccardo Orsolini (Assist: Nicolò Cambiaghi) | |||
| Paco Esteban | 31' | |||
| 44' | Torbjørn Heggem | |||
| Youssef Maleh | 45+2' |
| Amar Fatah (Assist: Danilo Veiga) |
64' | |||
| 75' |  |
Jay Enem (Assist: Nicolò Cambiaghi) | ||
| 90+4' |  |
Oussama El Azzouzi |
Match statistic
Starting lineups
