Bologna and Sassuolo shared the spoils at the Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, finishing 2-2 in a fixture that Domenico Tedesco's side spent most of the afternoon chasing. The point arrived only because Bologna forward Artem Dovbyk, introduced from the bench at 66', converted in the 90+1' to cancel out Sassuolo's second-half lead — a lead that had been restored within six minutes of Bologna drawing level.
The match's shape was set early. Sassuolo defender Josh Doig opened the scoring at 19', giving Alberto Aquilani's side a lead they carried into half-time. Bologna's response came not from within the run of play but from the dugout: Tedesco made three substitutions at 45', sending on Nikola Moro, Marco Libra, and Juan Miranda simultaneously. The triple change was the kind of structural intervention that signals a half had gone badly wrong, and the effect was immediate. Five minutes into the second period, Miranda assisted Roberto Piccoli — Bologna's centre-forward — to level at 1-1.
The equalizer lasted exactly six minutes. Sassuolo midfielder Vasilije Adžić restored the visitors' lead at 56', and Aquilani promptly withdrew him at 60' alongside Luca Lipani, replacing both with Ibrahim Sulemana and Kristian Thorstvedt. The double substitution read as a calculated decision to protect the lead rather than extend it — and for thirty minutes it appeared to be working.
Dovbyk changed that. The striker had been on the pitch for twenty-four minutes when he collected his yellow card in the 90+1' — and then, in the same minute, scored the equalizer that made it 2-2. The timing compressed two events into a single passage that will define how this match is remembered: a booking and a goal, back to back, from a player who had been brought on precisely to provide this kind of late-game weight. Bologna then had a player sent off in the 90+4', the identity of the individual not confirmed in the match record, which added a sour footnote to what had otherwise been a salvaged afternoon.
Sassuolo's failure to hold on was not simply a matter of conceding a late goal. Aquilani's side had the lead twice and twice allowed Bologna back into the match — the second time in the final minute of regulation. Their defensive structure had absorbed Bologna's triple substitution for most of the second half, but Dovbyk's introduction at 66' altered the physical equation in the final third, and the visitors could not manage the closing stages. The yellow card collected by Sassuolo's Jay Idzes at 54' — in the frantic five-minute window between Bologna's equalizer and Adžić's response — illustrated how compressed and pressurised that central passage of the match had become for both sides.
For Bologna, the point arrives against a backdrop of genuine early-season difficulty. Across their last three matches, Tedesco's side have collected one point, scoring twice and conceding four. The two goals here represent their entire output for the campaign so far. Sassuolo, by contrast, have taken eight points from their last five matches across Serie A and Coppa Italia, and five from their last three, suggesting a side with momentum that simply could not close out a game they had controlled for long stretches.
A month from now, this match will be remembered as the afternoon Bologna needed a hat-trick of half-time substitutions and a 90+1' goal from a substitute to avoid their third consecutive defeat.