Bologna, Dec 2: Bologna’s 12-match unbeaten run came to an ignoble end when it went down 3-1 at home to Cremonese, for which Jamie Vardy scored his first double in Serie A.
The match pitted a home side unbeaten in 12 games against a visitor that lost its last three league matches by a combined score of 6-2.
Yet it was Cremonese that struck first after half an hour. Matteo Bianchetti’s poised through ball put Martín Payero on goal and his assured finish gave the goalkeeper no chance.
Four minutes later, Jamie Vardy made it 2-0 with a carbon copy of the opener. Federico Bonazzoli’s pass set him free of a leaden back four and he coolly slotted home from almost exactly the same position as Payero.
Riccardo Orsolini pulled a goal back from the penalty spot on the stroke of halftime for Bologna but Vardy, the summer signing from Leicester City, restored Cremonese’s two-goal cushion five minutes into the second half when he stole in at the near post to tap home an inviting cross from the right.
It was an uplifting night for Vardy, who was reportedly the victim of a robbery last week.
U.K. media said thieves entered his home near Lake Garda and made off with 80,000 pounds worth of valuables while he was playing a league game in Rome.
The result was also a boost for his club. After winning its first two matches of the campaign Cremonese had won only one since. Monday’s result lifted it two places into 11th.
Bologna fell to sixth, behind Como on goal difference.
It was the first time that Vincenzo Italiano’s side allowed three goals in one game all season. For Bologna, the final whistle felt less like the closing note of an ordinary defeat and more like the sudden rupture of a long, carefully maintained rhythm. Twelve matches without a loss had built not only confidence but a sense of inevitability around Vincenzo Italiano’s side — a belief that even when the evening darkened, they would find a way back into the light.
Yet on this night, under the chill of the Emilia-Romagna sky, that belief finally gave way. Cremonese, battered by recent results and burdened by their own inconsistencies, arrived as the clear underdogs but played with the freedom of a team that had decided it had nothing left to lose.
Their intensity cut through Bologna’s structure, their directness unsettled a back line that has rarely been breached this season, and their clinical finishing ensured there would be no gentle unraveling, only a blunt and decisive one.
Jamie Vardy — a man whose week had been overshadowed by the trauma of a burglary — responded with the poise of a striker who has lived his entire career defying circumstances. His double not only sealed a cathartic result for Cremonese but also served as a reminder that experience, when sharpened by resilience, can still tilt a match on its axis.
For Bologna, the setback stings, breaking both momentum and aura, but seasons are not defined by a single stumble. Italiano’s men must now gather themselves, absorb the lessons in humility and defensive softness exposed here, and return with the composure of a team that knows its identity is stronger than one poor night.
And for Cremonese, climbing to 11th after a much-needed victory, this performance may yet become the spark that rescues their season — proof that even after weeks of struggle, belief can be rekindled in the most unexpected of places. (AP)
