Sassuolo seal huge victory in relegation battle as Inter Milan fall to rare defeat
As the only team to beat Inter in Serie A this season, Sassuolo were unlikely to be fazed by the visit of the Champions, and in the thick of the relegation battle, their need for points was enormous. With that in their mind, they started brightly and forced the first meaningful chance of the game through Kristian Thorstvedt, whose stinging drive was beaten away by Emil Audero.
That was only a temporary reprieve for Inter, who were soon picking the ball out the back of their own net. Josh Doig did the heavy lifting, muscling Denzel Dumfries off the ball on the byline and cutting the ball back for Armand Laurienté to steer the ball into the roof of the net.
Dumfries almost atoned for his error moments later when he latched onto Kristjan Asllani’s ball in the area, but when met with the whites of Andrea Consigli’s eyes, he fired narrowly wide.
Sassuolo were given an even bigger let off on the stroke of HT too, as although the back of Consigli’s net rippled when Carlos Augusto’s cross was turned home by Lautaro Martínez, VAR adjudged the Argentine to have strayed marginally offside before he turned home what he thought was an equaliser.
Perhaps it wasn’t too much of a surprise to see a muted Inter response after the break given they already have the title wrapped up, but when Simone Inzaghi made a double change on the hour mark, the game started to swing more in their favour.
They were always likely to have their work cut out against a Sassuolo side incentivised by completing a H2H league double for the first time since 2017/18, but with Inter themselves knowing that a win would’ve seen them keep alive their quest to become centurions, their lack of invention was a little surprising.
It would be unjust to the Neroverdi to suggest Inter at any point in the second half looked likely to break them down, but as the game grew old, there was still a sense of trepidation that a one-goal advantage may not have been enough.
That didn’t prove to be the case though, as Sassuolo held on to secure a huge three points in their battle to beat the drop, and as the only team in the relegation battle to have played so far this weekend, they can sit back and watch their rivals knowing they held up their end of the bargain.
