Vincenzo Italiano has openly expressed his admiration for the electric atmosphere at Anfield following on Wednesday night.
The Reds secured the win in their first European home game since February 2023, with goals from Alexis Mac Allister and sealing the deal. In what was a momentous occasion for Bologna, taking part in the Champions League for the first time since 1964 after clinching fifth place in Serie A, it proved to be a tenacious adversary.
Despite 's Liverpool enjoying a strong track record, with seven victories out of eight across all competitions, Bologna showed resilience and didn't make life easy for the Reds.
Yet, it was the reverberating support from the Reds fans that particularly struck Italiano and his squad, as confessed by the Bologna boss after the match. The intense support resonated through the stadium, leaving an indelible impression on the visitors, especially during the initial phase when Mac Allister tucked away Salah's cross in the 11th minute.
"Playing in a stadium like this makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up," Italiano shared in his post-match commentary. "The opposition players, playing at home, are lifted up by this support around the stadium. I think in the first few minutes we found this difficult to come to terms with."
Keen to draw positives from the encounter, Italiano said, "Me and the rest of the team feel like we need to take something away from this. We will show them clips of the nice moments they had in certain areas in midfield and tell them this is the Bologna we want to see until the end of the season."
Slot, the counterpart of Italiano, couldn't hide his satisfaction as he celebrated his first Champions League match at Anfield leading the Reds with a triumph.
"It was a good first experience because it was a win," he reflected. "It wasn't an easy one but that's normal if you play Champions League. There is always a lot of resistance, a lot of good teams play in the Champions League and Bologna is one of them. You can also see the results tonight where we saw maybe some surprising results. It was good to win. Clean sheet, some good individual performances. Positive overall."
