Serie A | Bologna 0-3 Milan: Who needs Mateta?

Milan were unable to seal a deadline day transfer for Crystal Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta, but the Rossoneri were still celebrating after the window closed thanks to a 3-0 victory away against Bologna in Serie A in the absence of Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic on Tuesday night: Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Christopher Nkunku and Adrien Rabiot with the goals at the Dall’Ara.

Bologna had only won one of their six Serie A matches in 2026 before kick-off, while Milan, coming off the back of a 1-1 draw with Roma last week, required a victory if they were to continue applying the pressure on Inter at the top of the league table. 

Bologna were without suspended goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski, and were also without star centre-back Jhon Lucumi through injury. There was no Pulisic, Alexis Saelemaekers or Santiago Gimenez in the Milan squad through injury. Leao was only fit enough for a spot on the bench, and with Niclas Fullkrug also named among the substitutes, there was a new Rossoneri strike partnership of Nkunku and Loftus-Cheek.

Click here to see how the action unfolded on the Football Italia Liveblog.

Bologna started proceedings encouragingly through Juan Miranda and Jonathan Rowe and earned a series of free-kicks and corners which they were unable to capitalise from. 

Milan started to grow into things after a quarter of an hour and came close to finding the back of the net after Zachary Athekame found the head of Youssouf Fofana with his cross in from the right flank. The Frenchman glanced his header just wide of the upright. 

Milan found their opener two minutes later. Nkunku was allowed a free header in the area, which was initially saved by Federico Ravaglia. The goalkeeper parried the rebound into the feet of Adrien Rabiot, who tapped to Loftus-Cheek to finish from 10 yards out. 

Nkunku and Loftus-Cheek combined again to double the Rossoneri advantage 10 minutes before the interval. The Englishman slipped his strike partner into the area, Ravaglia came out in an attempt to stop him, but got the timing wrong and tripped Nkunku up in the box. 

A penalty was awarded, a VAR check confirmed the correct decision was made, and Nkunku converted the spot kick low and to his right, sending Ravaglia the wrong way in the process. 

Moments after the second half kicked off, Juan Miranda sent a ludicrous long throw right into no-man’s land from within his own half. Rabiot spotted the opportunity, nicked the ball, raced through on goal and made no mistake one-on-one for 3-0. 

Clear-cut opportunities began to dry up from that point onwards: Bologna were afforded plenty of possession in the second half, but were unable to do much to break down Milan’s block. 

Niclas Fullkrug was sent through on goal after a long ball over the top after being introduced as a second half substitute. He chopped back inside Torbjorn Heggem, but ended up running straight into goalkeeper Ravaglia. 

Realistically, the job was already done for Milan when Rabiot made it three just a few minutes into the second half. Their unbeaten run in Serie A is now up to 22 matches. They find themselves five points shy of league leaders Inter. Bologna, meanwhile, are stuck in 10th and could now drop into the bottom half of the table if they fail to win next weekend. 

Bologna 0-3 Milan

Loftus-Cheek 20’, Nkunku 39’, Rabiot 48’.