Serie A | Atalanta 0-3 Sassuolo: Berardi plunges Juric into crisis

Atalanta plunged into crisis mode after a humiliating 3-0 home defeat to Domenico Berardi’s Sassuolo, seeing the Neroverdi leapfrog them in the Serie A table and piling pressure on Ivan Juric.

La Dea were fresh from a midweek Champions League victory away to Olympique Marseille, but are now without a Serie A win in seven rounds, losing two on the bounce. The Neroverdi added Cristian Volpato to the absentee list with Filippo Romagna, Laurs Skjellerup, Daniel Boloca, Yeferson Paz and Edoardo Pieragnolo.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Ademola Lookman thought he had scored on nine minutes with a powerful strike from 12 yards, but it was cleared off the line by Jay Idzes with some brave defending, leaving him with a black eye.

Isak Hien knocked down a ball over the top, but only into the path of Andrea Pinamonti, who was then brought down by Marco Carnesecchi for a penalty. Domenico Berardi converted for his second Serie A goal in as many games.

Davide Zappacosta’s angled drive was on target until it was accidentally charged down by teammate Nikola Krstovic, while at the other end Fali Candé couldn’t keep his finish down inside the penalty area.

Alieu Fadera started the run onto a Berardi pass from inside his own half, so was not offside when ballooning over the bar in first half stoppages.

Within 120 seconds of the restart, Sassuolo had doubled their lead, as Lazar Samardzic gave it away in midfield and was then nutmegged by Berardi, who rolled across from the right for Pinamonti to fire in from 12 yards.

Lookman stung Muric’s gloves, while the goalkeeper got to the Mario Pasalic knockdown before Krstovic could tap in, then Krstovic flicked just wide from a Davide Zappacosta pull-back.

Kristian Thorstvedt also wasted the chance to make it 3-0 for Sassuolo with a heavy first touch and prod off target, but just as Atalanta were pinning the visitors back for long periods, they left themselves exposed for a counter-attack.

Berardi ran onto the Thorsvedt through ball, held off Zappacosta, and swept his finish past Carnesecchi with the inside of the left boot.

Nicola Zalewski curled wide of the far post on a Pasalic assist, but Atalanta were visibly discouraged by their second consecutive Serie A defeat without finding the net.

Berardi pen 29, 66 (S), Pinamonti 47 (S)