Serie A | Sassuolo 1-0 Inter: Neroverdi do the dazzling Double

Inter seemed to have a hangover from their Scudetto celebrations, suffering their second defeat of the season – both to Sassuolo – thanks to an Armand Laurienté effort.

The Neroverdi were desperate in penultimate place, plus Ruan Tressoldi was suspended with Samu Castillejo, Gregoire Defrel and Domenico Berardi injured, while Mattia Viti and Kristian Thorstvedt were not fully fit either. The Champions of Italy were out for revenge after the 2-1 defeat on September 27, their only Serie A loss of the season, and Davide Frattesi started against his old club.

See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.

Stefan de Vrij made a decisive sliding tackle to stop Matheus Henrique going clear, while Emil Audero got down quickly to palm away the Luca Lipani strike.

Lautaro Martinez came sliding in to meet a Denzel Dumfries cross and hit the side-netting, but Sassuolo opened the scoring after a Dumfries error.

The Dutchman was caught napping by Josh Doig near the corner flag, robbed and the ball pulled back for Armand Laurienté to sweep into the roof of the net first-time from 10 yards.

Sassuolo take the lead over the Serie A champions! 🎯

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— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 4, 2024

Dumfries had the opportunity to make up for it five minutes later when sent through by the Kristjan Asllani slide-rule pass, but his angled drive flashed across the face of goal.

Inter did get the ball in the net in first half stoppages when a Carlos Augusto strike was deflected into the path of Lautaro Martinez to tap in at the back post, but the VAR review confirmed that he was offside.

Marko Arnautovic had an angled drive charged down, as it turned into a siege on the entire Sassuolo team sitting back to defend their lead. Arnautovic also failed to turn in the Juan Cuadrado pull-back from the by-line thanks to a crucial Marash Kumbulla block and Lautaro Martinez ballooned over.

The result dents Inter’s hopes of achieving a club record number of points this season, but it gives Sassuolo unexpected hope of avoiding relegation.