Bologna may have already been eliminated from the Champions League, but those of a red and blue persuasion will remember Tuesday night forever more.

The Rossoblu‘s 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund was the club’s first in European football’s showpiece event in its current guise and vindication for their manager, Vincenzo Italiano.

To find Bologna’s only previous win in the competition you’d have to go back six decades, when goals from Ezio Pascutti and Harald Ingemann Nielsen secured a 2-1 win over Anderlecht in the second leg of the first round of the 1964-65 European Cup.

With the away goal rule still to be introduced, the win earned Bologna, who had lost the first leg in Belgium 1-0, a replay at the Camp Nou. A stalemate draw ensued, before Anderlecht progressed on a coin toss.

There was no need to flip a coin on Tuesday night to determine Bologna’s fate in the Champions League, which had been sealed long before Dortmund arrived at the Stadio Dall’Ara.

But if the result was inconsequential for the Rossoblu‘s chances of qualification, it meant an awful lot to the players and to Italiano, who was visibly emotional after the final whistle.

“It’s such an incredible feeling to win my first Champions League match,” the Bologna manager said.

“As a kid, I dreamed of moments like this. I’m overwhelmed with emotion.

“Although we’re eliminated, it feels like we’ve won a quarter-final or even a semi-final today. Seeing how badly the team wanted this, hearing their words before the match – they wanted this win more than anything – and then performing in front of our home crowd, it’s an incredible feeling.

“It’s a dream come true. I can’t explain the emotion.”

With two points in the opening six games, the Serie A side were basement-dwellers in the Champions League table and their misery looked destined to continue as Serhou Guirassy put the visitors ahead from the spot 15 minutes in, before the match turned on its head in the second half.

Summer signing Thijs Dallinga had been on the pitch for eight minutes by the time he equalised with 71 minutes on the clock, before Samuel Iling-Junior, who had replaced the injured Riccardo Orsolini in the first half, netted the winner 60 seconds later.

With just one game left to play in the league phase, Bologna’s three-point gap from the play-off places means their Champions League campaign will come to an end next week in Lisbon against Sporting, but Italiano is focused on ensuring this season’s European adventure isn’t a one-off.

The Rossoblu are seventh in Serie A with 33 points after 20 games and behind Fiorentina, who currently occupy the final European spot, only on goal difference. Fourth-placed Lazio and fifth-placed Juventus are respectively six and four points ahead, but Bologna have a game in hand on both.

“The club’s ambition is clear; to compete at the highest level and secure a place in European competition,” he said.

“While they haven’t specified the competition, the goal is to consistently be among the top teams. We’ve made great strides this season and are now challenging the teams above us. If we can maintain this momentum and desire to win, we’ll be right up there fighting for a European spot.”

Taking Bologna back into Europe would be a fine feat for Italiano, whose job was in jeopardy just months after he replaced Thiago Motta in charge of the Rossoblu.

Motta was always going to be a difficult act to follow after masterminding a fifth-place finish last term, which ensured Champions League qualification for the first time in the club’s history.

Joshua Zirkzee and Riccardo Calafiori, two of last season’s key players, followed Motta through the departure gate, while Lewis Ferguson, who was voted Serie A’s best midfielder in May, was sidelined until January with an ACL injury.

Meanwhile, Dallinga, a €15m (£12.7m) signing from Toulouse, seemed ill-suited to the demands of Serie A.

And yet, for all the mitigating factors, dark clouds gathered on the horizon after Bologna picked up a meagre three points from their opening four matches.

Early in the season, the Emiliani were both ponderous in possession and wide open to counter-attacks, with Italiano’s decision to switch from his preferred 4-2-3-1 to a more attacking 4-3-3- formation failing to move the dial as his side were thrashed by Napoli at the end of August.

Bologna looked caught in a tactical no man’s land, but Italiano retained his glass-half-full approach and pleaded for patience, noting change would take time.

And so it has proved. Bologna have lost just once since a 3-0 thrashing in Rome against Lazio on November 24, holding Juventus and Inter Milan to draws away from home and beating high-flying Fiorentina in the process.

A team that could neither score goals nor keep them out have scored 23 times and kept five clean sheets over the past 10 matches in all competitions, with even the much-maligned Dallinga finding the net three times in his last seven appearances.

“We learn from our mistakes,” Italiano explained.

“We have a very young team, and we’ll use these experiences as opportunities to grow. We’ll build on our positive moments and work on improving our weaknesses. These young players have a great work ethic and are eager to learn.”

They may be out of Europe for now, but Bologna are determined not to leave their passport in the drawer next season.