Serie A 21/22: Bologna - Venezia postmatch

In Giornata 13 of the 2021/22 Serie A season, Venezia traveled to ninth-place Bologna and came away with all three points in an impressive 0-1 victory on the strength of an impeccable defensive performance and a second half goal from David Okereke.

Venezia manager Paolo Zanetti:

“Today we suffered. We met a very strong team that forced us to play a defensive match with heart and sacrifice. Football can be like that, and on these occasions you must be humble and have the right mentality. Being presumptuous is never the way, especially for a team like ours that has to find the points for salvation in every match. There are matches in which you may dictate the play, and others, like today, in which you may suffer under the opponent's merits.

We have exploited one of our strengths which is in defense, especially with our two in central defense. Caldara and Ceccaroni were both impressive today.

In matches like this, the watchword is to stay united and fight together, and so we did.

We had so many fans in attendance. I’m proud that they followed the team here, and I’m happy that they were able to celebrate a victory. We must try to repay their affection and give everything on the pitch for them, as we did today.

This league is very difficult. In comparison to Serie B, each team has more than one top player, and therefore an individual play that makes the difference is always around the corner, which forces us to work as a team with synergy in every minute of the match.”

Venezia striker David Okereke:

"We knew we would suffer in this match, and we did. But we fought together and in the end we prevailed. We are improving and growing game by game."

Venezia midfielder Ethan Ampadu:

“We are really tired, but we gave everything and we managed to capitalize in a difficult match. Today we won, but the road is still long, we have to keep fighting and improving match after match to realize our dream of staying in Serie A.”