Bologna 1-4 Hellas Verona..reaction

Hellas win again and deservedly so.

THE GAME

Considering the first few fixtures, this was the first test against a side expected to finish in the middle of the table, despite Bologna finding themselves in the relegation places. Verona fans travelled in large numbers and arrived in the town early due to the lack of trains running between the two towns today.

Upon arriving in Bologna, Hellas fans were marched to the stadium. but others walked away from the main group. It was one of these groups that was attacked by Bologna fans armed with knives and bottles, leaving two fans hospitalised after being stabbed. This caused tension and clashes between the two sets of fans. Because of this, the main road towards the stadium was closed, meaning the team coach had to be diverted to some B roads, meaning kick-off was delayed by 20 minutes due to the team bus not arriving in time.

The game itself was perhaps the perfect away performance and showed Mandorlini for what he is, a brave coach and one who can work out teams weaknesses and expose them. Playing a 4-3-3 with Iturbe and Gomez each side of Toni, the pace of Hellas' attacks caught Bologna napping and the goals by Cacciatore and Iturbe were of no surprise. Despite Bologna then attacking after the break and scoring via a Diamanti penalty, Verona soon dominated again and scored via Toni and right at the end Jorginho. Verona had many more clear chances, the worst culprits being Jorginho and Toni. The player of the match was Iturbe, showing creativity, pace and scored a wonderful goal from 25 yards for 2-0. Upon being substituted, he even was applauded off by some Bologna fans who appreciated his excellent performance.  The win lifts us to 5th, an incredible feat. Although the season is young, it puts more points between us and the relegation spots, with important games against Parma and Inter coming up.

QUOTES

MANDORLINI- "We are back in Serie A after a very long time, we wanted to feed that enthusiasm and we are succeeding and we hope this can continue. We are very, very happy with the league position." Speaking about Iturbe "He's a boy of great prospect and Verona is the perfect stage for him to show his talents."

ITURBE- "We wanted to win and we achieved our goal. It was harder than it seemed because Bologna are a team fighting at the bottom. We live in a magical moment, but lets take things game by game."

TONI- "We're in a great period but lets not forget the target, which remains salvation. Iturbe? Playing with him is very good, he can have an important future."

PIOLI (COACH BOLOGNA)- "It was the worst performance of my time here at Bologna. I take full responsibility but I remain convinced we will succeed. Credit to Verona, they attacked well and closed down the spaces."

SIDENOTES
After missing a few games with injury, Mimmo Maietta returned to the team for todays game, but exited with another injury, straining his right calf muscle. The next few days will evaluate his recovery time.

Mandorlini Pre-Sassuolo

The coach prepares for a six-pointer against fellow promoted team.

"We're expecting a tough game..we don't need to tell the players how important this will be". The Ravenna native continued, "Roma? For 60 minutes we did very well and defended as a strong unit. The first goal killed morale, we could have handled the situation better."

Speaking about the new signing Iturbe, Mandorlini said "We know of his obvious quality, but he must demonstrate this on the field to become a regular."

Iturbe and his agent..'Verona are perfect'

Juan Manuel Iturbe and agent Gustavo Moscardi speak..

"My player (Iturbe) chose Hellas Verona because he wants to gain experience and grow in one of the worlds hardest championships, Serie A" Moscardi told tuttomercatoweb.com

He continued "Iturbe is also ideal for Verona, because Mandorlini's squad lacks an explosive player like him".

Iturbe himself was delighted to join gialloblu, telling the official website "I joined Hellas because they are a great team, and Italian football has always fascinated me. I must thank Sean Sogliano for signing me to such a big club."

The Argentine added "The negotiaions took a while, but I'm finally here. I'll play on the left or right, wherever the coach wants me to play".

OFFICIAL..ITURBE SIGNS FOR VERONA

The Porto man has signed a season-loan with an option to buy.

A player Sogliano has managed to sneak under the radar, (in terms of signing for Verona) Juan Manuel Iturbe signed for Hellas tonight, a deal announced by Gianluca Di Marzio of SkyItalia.

Iturbe is one of a number of players dubbed 'the new Messi' due to his similar characteristics of being a dribbler, goalscorer and small stature. Born in Buenos Aires (1993) the forward started his career with Cerro Porteno in the Paraguayan Premier Division scoring three goals in 22 games.
This allowed him to make a big money move to FC Porto, a club famous for signing South Americans and then selling them on for big money.

Sadly it didn't work out and after only five games for the first team, he was loaned to River Plate in Argentina, scoring three goals in 17 games for the giants. He started his international career in Paraguay's youth teams but after falling out with management, declared for Argentina, playing ten u20 games, scoring five goals.

The player attracted interest from both Inter and Genoa, but Hellas won the deal, loaning him and having an option to buy for an estimated £7.5M, a similar deal to another Argentinan player signed in the summer, Ezequiel Cirigliano.

The player will wear the number 15 shirt.