Referee Maurizio Mariani blew his whistle after 96 breathless, and at times scrappy minutes of the Coppa Italia final at the Stadio Olimpico, and there was only one place Vincenzo Italiano was going.

As players dropped to their knees in delight and staff ran on to the pitch to celebrate, Italiano headed straight for the Bologna fans in the Curva Nord, arms out, engulfed in the moment.

Aside from leading Bologna to a major trophy, their first in 51 years, it was a personal triumph for Italiano. Vindication he has what it takes to succeed at the highest level.

Demons were exorcised, personal hurdles cleared.

After helping Spezia earn promotion to Serie A at the first time of asking, he guided them to safety in his second campaign. This caught the interest of Fiorentina.

Rocco Commisso brought Italiano to Florence, and while in those three years his reputation blossomed, he also suffered setbacks.

He lost three finals during his years with Fiorentina, the Coppa Italia (2023) and the Europa Conference League twice (2023 and 2024).

Italiano gave the impression of being a ‘beautiful loser’, a tag Zdenek Zeman was labelled with in the 1990s. 

The consensus was Italiano was a coach who would get you so far, his football is easy on the eye, but without the bite and the grit that teams need to get over the line and win trophies. He lacked the ability to change things mid-game, possessing no plan B, went the thinking.

This was especially true in the 2024 Conference League final defeat by Olympiakos. Fiorentina hadn’t lost a game throughout group stage or knockout yet did when it mattered most.

While the defeat by West Ham in the previous season’s showpiece was acceptable considering the financial gap between the two clubs, Olympiakos was the one that stung most.

“There was too much pressure and perhaps that made an impact,” remarked Italiano’s former assistant Marco Turati in the days leading up to the Coppa Italia final.

Three final defeats had taken their toll and he decided to leave Florence for Bologna last summer in a move many saw as a sideways step.

Even though Bologna had qualified for the Champions League for the first time in their history, the heart of the team was about to be ripped out. Joshua Zirkzee and Riccardo Calafiori left, while Lewis Ferguson was still recovering from a knee operation.

Most predicted a slide down the table for Bologna, and that Italiano may not last in the job. 

Ten months later and those predictions seem churlish. 

While the Rossoblu are perhaps a less defensively resolute team compared with the one under Thiago Motta a year ago, Italiano has turned Bologna into a more aggressive and intense beast.

With Riccardo Orsolini on one side, Dan Ndoye on the other and Santiago Castro through the middle, the three have scored 34 goals between them in all competitions.

Italiano has got the very best out of Orsolini, with the winger enjoying the most productive spell of his career. The same applies to match-winner Ndoye. Under Motta the Swiss winger scored twice, with Italiano that figure has grown to nine. 

“Italiano is the best coach in Italy,” said an effusive Orsolini recently. “He’s underrated. After a week working with him I said I’d throw myself in the fire for him. It’s hard to find one player who hasn’t grown from last season and you can talk to him.”

While Motta guided Bologna to Europe’s premier competition for the first time last season, the brand of football was a bit more calculated, a bit more side-to-side than Italiano’s more direct and vertical style.

It was something club captain Ferguson spoke about when Destination Calcio interviewed him this year.

“With Motta, it was a little bit more strategic. With Italiano, it’s more intense,” he said. “We attack a lot more, which means we have to defend a lot more counter-attacks, but it’s the way he wants to play and it suited the lads. Everyone buys into it as you can see with the results and things are really going good.”

Initial results weren’t good though: Bologna registered one win in their opening eight games under Italiano. Balancing Serie A and the Champions League was proving difficult for club and coach. Moreover, shifting from Motta’s 4-2-3-1 system to Italiano’s 4-3-3 naturally needed time.

Everything changed following a 2-0 away win against Cagliari in late October thanks to goals from Orsolini and Jens Odgaard.

In the seven months since, they have lost only five times in the league, with the most recent one – coincidentally against Milan coming due to Italiano massively rotating the team ahead of the Coppa Italia final.

Moreover, the victory in Rome means an automatic entry into the Europa League for next season, giving fans more nights to remember at the Dall’Ara.

For Italiano, guiding Bologna to a first trophy since 1974 consigns the ‘three bitter finals’ to history. He’s now a winning a coach.

Many observers believed last season’s success could not be repeated but Italiano has gone one better. 

Emotionally, he dedicated the win to the late Joe Barone. The former Fiorentina director died in March last year ahead of a league game against Atalanta, and Italiano revealed he received a message from Barone’s son ahead of the final.

Talks with director Giovanni Sartori and CEO Claudio Fenucci over a contract extension is in the offing. His current deal runs to 2026 and ironing out new terms is surely just a formality at this stage.

On a night when Bologna ended their five-decade long trophy drought, Italiano proved he had the mettle for the big occasion.

A beautiful loser no more.