Bologna will face Napoli in the final of the Supercoppa Italiana after eliminating Serie A leaders Inter in a penalty shoot-out, following a 1-1 draw at Al-Awwal Park.

The Nerazzurri struck early in Saudi Arabia via Marcus Thuram’s flying volley, but Riccardo Orsolini got Bologna level from the penalty spot in the second half.

Neither team could find a winner before 90 minutes were through, and the Nerazzurri failed to convert three of their kicks in the resulting shoot-out – two of which saw Federico Ravaglia deny Alessandro Bastoni and Ange-Yoan Bonny – as the underdogs inched into Monday’s showpiece match.

Only 72 seconds had gone when Inter went ahead, as Bastoni embarked on a gliding run forward to find Thuram free for an acrobatic finish at the far post.

Bologna then forced Josep Martinez into three good saves before Ravaglia kept out Piotr Zielinski at close range, but when a VAR review led to Yann Bisseck being penalised for handball, the Rossoblu had a glorious chance to level from the spot.

And their captain Orsolini made no mistake, firing straight down the middle to beat Martinez.

Inter thought they had a spot-kick of their own early in the second half after Torbjorn Heggem collided with Bonny, but following another pitch-side review, it was ruled the Inter forward was already on his way down before any contact was made.

Ravaglia was the busier of the two goalkeepers in the latter stages, while Bastoni headed wide from a good position when totally unmarked, as Inter failed to prevent a shoot-out.

Both teams’ first penalties were successful, but five successive misses followed before Jonathan Rowe and Ciro Immobile converted with Bologna’s final two efforts – the latter rifling off the underside of the crossbar to seal victory.

Data Debrief: Bologna buck debutant trend

Only two of the last eight teams to play in the Supercoppa Italiana – all of whom made their debuts under the old two-team format – had won their maiden matches (six losses).

But Bologna became the first Supercoppa Italiana debutants since Lazio in 1998 (2-1 versus Juventus) to triumph, and they have now won back-to-back games against Inter for the first time since November 1999 (also 1-0 in Serie A in April).

Bologna, aided by the 0.78 expected goals value assigned to their penalty, edged the xG battle by 1.28 to 1.17, though Inter had more shots (14 to eight) and more attempts on target (six to four).