Bologna had 14 shots and 1.78 xG. Lazio had two injuries and won 1-0

Gennaro Gattuso's first league game as Lazio coach was decided by the two players his afternoon went wrong to produce. Adam Marusic pulled up after eighteen minutes. Fisayo Dele-Bashiru followed him off early in the second half. The replacements combined for the only goal of the night.

Bologna, meanwhile, spent ninety minutes doing almost everything except scoring. 59% of the ball, 14 shots, 1.78 expected goals, 26 touches in the Lazio box against 13. Nothing.

Two substitutions, one goal

Romano Floriani Mussolini had been on since the 18th minute, in for Marusic. Davide Frattesi had been on barely five minutes, in for Dele-Bashiru. At 59' Floriani Mussolini took a quick throw, Boulaye Dia flicked it on with his heel, and Frattesi arrived in front of goal to beat Łukasz Skorupski with his right foot.

It was Frattesi's first competitive touch of the season worth talking about, and Lazio never made another chance like it. One big chance created all game, three shots on target, 41% of the ball. That was the whole attacking output.

Mandas said no, then Frattesi did

The last half-hour belonged entirely to Bologna, and Christos Mandas kept refusing them. Jens Odgaard was denied from close range at the restart. Federico Bernardeschi, left out of the starting XI and on at 57', hit a free-kick that Mandas pushed away at 76'. Jonathan Rowe was stopped too.

The one Mandas could not reach, on 75 minutes, was cleared off the line by Frattesi — a scorer doing goalkeeping four minutes before the goalkeeper did any more of it. Artem Dovbyk also headed one straight into Floriani Mussolini's head instead of the net. ⚪🔵

Domenico Tedesco, also making his Serie A debut as a coach, did not pretend otherwise afterwards.

"I don't think we were going to win, but we absolutely shouldn't have lost."

— Domenico Tedesco, Bologna coach

Gattuso will not care how it looked. Lazio had lost their Coppa Italia tie days earlier and needed a start, and they got three points from ten shots and a substitute nobody had pencilled in.

Match facts

• 59' — Davide Frattesi (Lazio), assist Boulaye Dia
• 18' — Adam Marusic off injured, Romano Floriani Mussolini on
• Fisayo Dele-Bashiru off injured early in the second half, Frattesi on
• Half-time: Bologna 0-0 Lazio
• Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, Bologna — Serie A matchday 1, Monday 24 August 2026
• Referee: Fabio Maresca. Yellow cards for both sides, no player sent off

What's next

Bologna go to Bergamo on Monday 31 August to face Sarri's Atalanta, who also opened with a win they did not deserve on the numbers — a fixture between two sides currently flattered by their results. Lazio stay home: Genoa visit the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday 30 August, still looking for their first point of the season.

How the numbers from that night held up

Five rounds on, the shot count from the Dall'Ara reads less like a one-off than a warning Bologna never heeded. They lost at Atalanta, drew 2-2 with Sassuolo, lost again at Napoli and drew 1-1 with Torino — two points from five games, 3 goals scored, 6 conceded, and 18th in the table. The chances have kept coming without the finishing to match them, the same gap that let Lazio in on matchday 1.

Gattuso's Lazio went the other way. A 1-0 home win over Genoa followed the Bologna result, then a 2-1 away win at Udinese, a 2-2 draw with AC Milan and a 2-0 win at Venezia — three wins and a draw from the next four, 6th in the table on 10 points with a +4 goal difference built on only 2 conceded in four games. The defensive discipline that got them through 90 minutes without the ball at the Dall'Ara has carried into the rest of the month.