Vincenzo Italiano, the coach of Bologna, discussed the team’s surprising tactical decisions in their match against Aston Villa and emphasized that Bologna “went beyond expectations” by reaching the Europa League quarter-finals.
Despite a difficult 3-1 loss in the first leg at home, Bologna faced an even tougher challenge in the second leg. The team had previously been defeated by Aston Villa at Villa Park in both the Champions League last season and in the Europa League group stage earlier in the 2025-2026 season. While hoping for a better outcome than the 4-0 defeat in the second leg, the team conceded multiple goals, including one immediately following a saved penalty.
Ollie Watkins, Morgan Rogers, and an acrobatic late finish from Ezri Konsa secured Aston Villa’s dominant victory, eliminating Bologna with an aggregate score of 7-1.
Bologna’s Tactical Experiment Against Aston Villa Proved Ineffective
Italiano implemented several unexpected tactical changes during the game, most notably inverting his full-backs from their usual positions. “Analyzing this match is superfluous,” Italiano stated to 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 significant aggregate losses, it’s noteworthy that Bologna’s only defeats in the Europa League this season were against Aston Villa. “We must learn lessons from the whole journey, recognize 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,” Italiano continued. “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.”
Currently struggling in mid-table and out of the Coppa Italia, it appears unlikely that Bologna will qualify for European competition 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.”
The Europa League will feature an all-English semi-final, with Nottingham Forest set to face Aston Villa, while Braga will play against Freiburg.