Vincenzo Italiano hailed Bologna’s “extraordinary” victory over Roma, after watching his side “climb the mountain” to book their place in the Europa League quarter-finals.
Bologna prevailed in an epic all-Italian tie, which required an extra-time strike from Nicolo Cambiaghi at Stadio Olimpico to secure a dramatic 5-4 aggregate win.
After the first leg had finished 1-1, Bologna led 3-1 during the second leg, but conceded twice in the final 15 minutes as Roma fought back to force an extra half an hour.
And Italiano, who was a two-time Conference League runner-up with Fiorentina, was thrilled as his side regroup to set up a last-eight clash with Aston Villa.
“You saw the atmosphere in the stadium from the start, we were against a strong side and I said our odds were 49-51 to go through,” he said.
“But we managed to turn them around and continue in an important European competition.
“The match was wonderful. We are truly happy to come here and do what we did, which was to climb the mountain.
“I can only congratulate the lads for an extraordinary performance, as winning in this atmosphere against this Roma side was a genuine achievement.
This morning’s mood#WeAreOne pic.twitter.com/bCEZDEQQkT
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“We got through a tough league phase, won a difficult play-off and have now beaten a team that is superior to us in every way. However, playing your cards in the best way brings you to these results.
“We go in again [against Villa] knowing that we are the underdogs, but we’ll prepare something and try to do something else extraordinary.”
Meanwhile, Roma are now without a win in five matches in all competitions, with the home fans making their frustration heard at the final whistle.
Midfielder Bryan Cristante rued the Giallorossi’s Europa League exit, but urged his team-mates to respond in a positive manner.
“We shouldn’t have conceded all these goals,” he said. “We went behind, we did so well to get back into it, seemed in control during extra-time and ready to score the decisive goal. But, instead, it went the other way.
“We are all disappointed to be out of the competition. The fans let us hear their disappointment. It’s tough, because we had got it back on track. We were convinced we had the right approach, but we lost.
“We were there, we were in the right position to get through to the next stage of the Europa League. We cannot complain about fatigue, we’ve just got to roll our sleeves up and keep going,”