Pellegrini strike leaves Europa League last-16 tie between Bologna and Roma balanced

Roma celebrate their equaliser

AS Roma struck late in their UEFA Europa League (UEL) last 16 first-leg tie at Serie A rivals Bologna as substitute Lorenzo Pellegrini cancelled out Federico Bernardeschi’s goal to seal a 1-1 draw at the Stadio Renato Dall'Ara.

In a first half littered with fouls and stoppages, Roma carved out the best opportunity, as Bryan Zaragoza dragged wide from 18 yards on the 20-minute mark following a superb counterattack led by Donyell Malen.

Bologna offered little in response, but Mile Svilar was called into action just two minutes before the break, as the Serbian stopper sharply dashed across his line to repel Bernardeschi's 25-yard strike.

However, the pattern of a slow-burning first period was thankfully not repeated after the restart, as Bologna burst into life on 49 minutes.

Jonathan Rowe's clever pass on the edge of Roma's penalty box freed up Bernardeschi in the right channel and the Italy international curled an unstoppable angled drive past Svilar.

Bologna celebrate their opener

Malen looked to lead the Roma revival from there as the Dutch forward arrowed a close-range strike narrowly past0Łukasz Skorupski's near post just four minutes later before Svilar flew off his line to bravely thwart Tommaso Pobega on the hour.

As the contest opened up from there, Roma seized the chance to equalise via the quick-thinking Pellegrini.

Captain0Bryan Cristante forced an error from Joao Mario down the visitors' left flank, and his through ball allowed Malen to test Skorupski, but with the Bologna back line slow to react to the loose ball, Pellegrini calmly slotted home from 10 yards out.

Match stats

That shook up the game in the closing stages, and Malen came agonisingly close to pinching a smash-and-grab win on 76 minutes as his miscued toe poke was deflected on to the post by Jhon LucumD before Bologna sub Charalampos Lykogiannis bulleted a header against Svilar’s crossbar on 90 minutes.

A draw for Bologna extends their unbeaten UEL run to 10 games, after losing out to0Aston Villa in their league phase opener, and Vincenzo Italiano's team are also unbeaten in five home clashes with Roma across all competitions, ahead of a crunch second leg in Rome on March 19th.

Catch up on the match stats here