Fiorentina beat Sassuolo 3-1 at the Stadio Artemio Franchi on Sunday afternoon as they keep hold of fifth place in the Serie A table.
Gonzalo Rodriguez opened the scoring for the Gigliati but after Domenico Berardi equalised for the Neroverdi, Josip Ilicic regained the lead for the Tuscans and Sassuolo goalkeeper Andrea Consigli sealed the victory with an own goal.
Although the away side had some good spells, the hosts dominated possession in the first half. They took the lead in the ninth minute when Borja Valero took a short corner and passed to Milan Badelj, who then crossed the ball for Rodriguez to score with a header.
Marcos Alonso had a volley disallowed for offside and Nikola Kalinic had two chances increase Fiorentina’s lead but Francesco Acerbi blocked one shot and Consigli saved another effort. Sassuolo’s best opportunity fell to Gregoire Defrel, who was one-on-one with Ciprian Tatarusanu but he shot horribly wide.
Sassuolo opened up more in the second half and after a long-range effort from Matteo Politano went wide, they drew level in the 55th minute. Defrel controlled a long pass and laid the ball off to Berardi to hit a first-time shot with his left foot.
Parity didn’t last long though as Fiorentina regained the lead only a minute later. Marcos Alonso crossed from the left-wing and Ilicic was on the edge of the box to volley the ball into the net.
Both teams tried to maintain possession but struggled to create clear chances. Federico Bernardeschi scored after getting the rebound of a free-kick but the goal was disallowed and then the Viola extended their lead in bizarre circumstances when Consigli failed to control a back-pass and put the ball into his own net.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com