Domenico Berardi has waxed lyrical about Sassuolo’s performance in a stunning 2-0 victory over reigning Serie A champions Inter. Despite entering the fixture as pre-match outsiders, the Neroverdi defied the odds to inflict a massive blow on Simone Inzaghi’s title ambitions.
Giacomo Raspadori and Gianluca Scamacca found the net within the opening half an hour of play to silence the jammed-full Giuseppe Meazza on Sunday. Once again, the Sassuolo youngsters put their sought-after talents on full display.
While many deemed Sassuolo’s 3-1 win over Inter’s bitter rivals Milan earlier in the season as a fluke, it seems that the lightning does strike twice after all. Alessio Dionisi’s kindergarten exceeded every expectation at one of the most intimidating hostile Serie A venues this evening.
Who else but Scamacca and Raspadori to inspire Sassuolo to their first league win over Inter since August 2018. Those who might have doubted the forwards’ ability to rise to the occasion, well, take a look at how they tore the league’s second-best defence into pieces in less than 30 minutes.
Raspadori was too quick for Inter’s backline before smashing the ball under Samir Handanovic and into the net. Meanwhile, Scamacca may haven’t hit a banger as he did against Milan in the first half of the season, but his header was nothing short of world-class.
The highly-rated duo has a host of admirers across Europe’s top-five leagues, let alone Serie A, and Berardi believes his teammates are ready to take their careers to the next step.
“They’re two great players, they’re ready to make the leap up in quality,” he said in the post-game interview as relayed by SempreInter.
The 27-year-old winger also heaped praise on Sassuolo for keeping a rare clean sheet this Serie A season.
“It was important to show up here and have a great match. We won 2-0 without conceding a goal, something that hadn’t happened for a long time. It was a great match also from a defensive point of view.”
Heading into this matchday, the Neroverdi were without a clean sheet in all 12 Serie A away fixtures this season. It took Sassuolo a while to get there, but they finally did and at Meazza of all venues.
Meanwhile, it was the second time in five league matches that Inter failed to find the back of the net. But that does not take away anything from Sassuolo, who became only the second Italian team to hold the league’s most prolific attack at bay this term.