At the Dall’Ara, the most compelling fixture of a matchday with no traditional heavyweight clashes. A high-table showdown also awaits at the Olimpico between Roma and Como.
In a Serie A moving toward a new era, it’s telling that on a weekend without classic big matches — understood as clashes between the traditional giants of Italian football — two fixtures nonetheless steal the spotlight when you look at the table: Bologna–Juventus and Roma–Como.
Vincenzo Italiano’s Bologna have now cemented their place in football’s elite. After the Champions League breakthrough season under Motta, they went on to win the Coppa Italia, remain consistently in the upper reaches of the domestic table, and carve out an international profile thanks to a more than respectable Europa League campaign — highlighted on Thursday by a crucial comeback win against Celta Vigo.
The fact that Bologna head into a direct Champions League clash with Juventus ahead of them in the standings — and that this not only doesn’t surprise us but feels entirely plausible — perfectly illustrates the outstanding work being done at the club on a technical, executive, and ownership level.
Over the past three years, the real difference between Bologna and Juventus hasn’t been so much about player quality or even league positions, but about club stability. While post–Agnelli Juventus have been navigating through fog, making questionable decisions and showing a glaring lack of long-term planning, Bologna have continued to overperform and exceed expectations, backed by an exceptional front office and strong ownership.
Take the Thiago Motta case: at Bologna — one of the most virtuous organizational environments in Serie A — he worked wonders, while in Turin he looked completely out of place. Clearly, he wasn’t suddenly the best coach in Italy when he was with the Rossoblù, nor was he the incompetent figure he was painted as at Juventus. A superficial analysis might suggest he paid the price of stepping up a level; the harsher truth may actually be the opposite — that he paid for a drop in organizational quality.
If Bologna are a fairytale in the purest sense of the word — a surprise built on work, competence, and structure — Como’s story is different. The “fairytale” unfolding on the shores of Lake Como was, in many ways, written in advance. Como’s ownership is extraordinarily wealthy — the richest in Serie A by a wide margin and among the richest in world football. Their summer market, with €100 million invested in the squad, was anything but small-club business.
Words matter here: invested, not spent. Como have put serious money on the table with a clear vision to build and plan — which conceptually brings them closer to Bologna’s path. Still, this is less about surprise or fairytale, and more about competence and — why not — aesthetic ambition. Since their days in Serie B, Como’s owners have openly stated that their primary objective was to play attractive football.
If I had to compare today’s Como to a team from the past, my first thought goes to Berlusconi’s Milan of the 1990s — driven by the same principles, albeit with vast resources. If that sounds exaggerated, consider this: it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see Como become a regular Champions League side in the coming years — and possibly win trophies both domestically and in Europe.
Sunday’s match at the Olimpico against Roma will be a crucial test of Cesc Fàbregas’ team’s mental strength. It’s their second brutal away fixture in a row, after being thrashed 4–0 by Inter in Milan. Heavy defeats like that can be part of the learning curve for a team committed to playing openly against anyone. The key question is whether that blow will — even unintentionally — alter their mindset in the following match.
That would be the greatest danger for a side whose identity is its biggest asset: losing itself, getting stuck between what it wants to be and what it fears repeating — namely, shipwrecking in its own ideas.
If Como lack the courage to fully commit to their football at the Olimpico, they risk another heavy defeat. Gasperini’s Roma may be the worst possible opponent right now: a team in strong physical and mental condition, as shown by their emphatic Europa League win away at Celtic, and one that is also wounded by two straight league defeats — meaning they’ll be desperate to respond in front of their own fans.
L’articolo Serie A: Matchday 15 Without a True Big Match — Bologna–Juventus Takes Center Stage proviene da Soccer Made In Italy.
