Nicola Sansone scored after 55 seconds to give Bologna a 1-0 lead at the break, but Benevento were close to equalising in the first half.
Filippo Inzaghi returned to Bologna to face his successor at the Renato Dall’Ara and Sinisa Mihajlovic got the best start on Friday night.
Bologna scored the opener within 55 seconds, as Musa Barrow skipped past every challenge. It first looked like a brilliant cross to Sansone, but after a second take it might have been a blocked attempt that spun across the target to reach the unmarked winger.
The 29-year-old made no mistakes, however, and buried the first chance of the game.
The intense start continued, as Benevento pushed to bounce back immediately, and it looked like it was going to be a busy night for referee Davide Ghersini.
Federico Barba collapsed in the Benevento box after an attack from Benevento, he was holding his knee and stayed down for a while.
As the conditions worsened, Barba felt better and was back on his feet to play on for the visitors. Viola had a big chance at left, when he forced Skorupski into action after 14 minutes.
Gianluca Caprari then cut inside and his effort struck the root of the frame and Bologna were lucky to still be in the lead.
As the snow thickened, the challenges got heavier too, with both sides threatening to score the second goal in the match.
Caprari got another chance when Pasquale Schiattarella has acres of space to decide his pass. The first to Gianluca Lapadula was cleared by the defenders, but only as far to give the midfielder a chance to pick out Caprari inside the area.
The former Sampdoria attacker couldn’t trouble Skorupski this time, as the Rossoblu keeper easily dealt with the attempt.
Barrow found Sansone unmarked again at the far post, but the latter could find the target with the diving header.
Takehiro Tomiyasu had the confidence to try a long-range effort right before half-time, but the 22-year-old’s drive was half a metre wide of Lorenzo Montipo’s post.
Both teams went for it in Bologna and it was an exciting half of football.
Bologna 1-0 Benevento
Sansone 1 (B),
Bologna (4-2-3-1): Skorupski; Tomiyasu, Danilo, Soumaoro, Dijks; Dominguez, Schouten; Skov Olsen, Soriano, Sansone; Barrow
Benevento (4-3-2-1): Montipo; Depaoli, Tuia, Glik, Barba; Hetemaj, Schiattarella, Viola; Iago Falque, Caprari; Lapadula
Referee: Ghersini
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1
Draw