Bologna 1-5 Roma: Thumping first half display!

Edin Dzeko - needing one goal to become the club's third all-time leading goalscorer - was initially denied that milestone by Andrea Poli, who turned into his own net ahead of the Bosnian to give the Giallorossi a fifth-minute advantage.

But Dzeko notched brilliantly moments later to nonetheless create a bit of history - setting his side on the way to a first-half rampage that would see Lorenzo Pellegrini, Jordan Veretout and Henrikh Mkhitaryan all also score.

An unfortunate Bryan Cristante own goal spared some of Bologna's embarrassment - but in a second half that was understandably less frantic they could not make any further headway into the final scoreline.

VAR intervened twice to scrub off goals - first for Bologna's Nico Dominguez, then to deny Pellegrini his second of the game - that ensured the match ultimately finished just as it looked at the break.

Roma are back in league action on Thursday - they host Torino at the Stadio Olimpico.


BOLOGNA 1-5 ROMA

SCORERS: Cristante o.g. (24'); Poli o.g. (5'), Dzeko (10'), Pellegrini (15'), Veretout (35'), Mkhitaryan (44')

BOLOGNA (4-2-3-1): Ravaglia; Mbaye (Paz), Danilo, Tomiyasu, De Silvestri; Poli (Medel), Svanberg (Dominguez); Barrow, Soriano (Baldursson), Vignato (Pagliuca); Palacio

Unused subs: Da Costa, Breza, Rabbi, Kingsley, Calabresi, Vergani, Khailoti

ROMA (3-4-2-1): Pau Lopez; Ibanez, Cristante, Kumbulla (Smalling); Karsdorp, Villar (Diawara), Veretout (Perez), Spinazzola (Calafiori); Mkhitaryan, Pellegrini; Dzeko (Mayoral)

Unused subs: Farelli, Boer, Mirante, Jesus, Fazio, Peres