SASSUOLO

League position: 12th
Head coach: Alessio Dionisi
Serie A top-scorer: Domenico Berardi (10)

RECENT FORM

SASSUOLO: L W D L L
ROMA: W W W D L

Inconsistency and a porous defence have seen Sassuolo struggle with life after Roberto De Zerbi and the cup loss to Juventus in midweek means it’s just one win in their last five for the Neroverdi.

They’ve conceded nine times in their last three top-flight matches and must do without both Giacomo Raspadori and Gianluca Scamacca who are suspended for the Giallorossi’s visit.

Roma will have been disappointed with their cup exit to Inter Milan on Thursday, making for a frustrating few days for Mourinho’s men following on from the controversial ending against Genoa last weekend.

With that said, however, there is plenty to be positive about from a Giallorossi perspective, with a three-game unbeaten league run (W2, D1) at their backs and fourth-place just six points out of reach.

Possible Sassuolo line-up

(4-2-3-1)

Consigli; Muldur, Chiriches, Ferrari, Rogerio; Frattesi, Lopez; Berardi, Traore, Kyriakopoulos; Defrel

LAST MEETING

DANGER MAN
Domenico Berardi

While Sassuolo have shipped goals at the back for the majority of the season so far, they’ve had no problems going forward.

In fact, they’ve scored more goals than fourth-placed Juve and only four players league-wide have scored more goals than Berardi at this stage of the season.

The 27-year-old returned to club football as a Euro 2020 champion this summer and he has already hit double figures for a third successive Serie A campaign.

Throw in his seven league assists and, thus far, no other player has contributed more goals in the Italian top-flight this term.

MATCH STATS

Roma have won 53 percent of their previous 17 Serie A meetings with Sassuolo (W9, D7, L1), whose six percent win ratio is their worst in the competition against sides they have met at least three times.

Having won the reverse fixture 2-1 earlier in the campaign, the Giallorossi are looking to do the double over the Neroverdi for only the second time in their history. The only other occasion that they did so was in 2016-17.

Roma are three games unbeaten in the league and a fourth match without defeat would make it their longest such sequence since January 2021.

Curiously, Roma are the only side in the division yet to draw away from home this season (W5, L6) and they are one of only three teams - alongside Mainz and Aston Villa - yet to share points on their travels across Europe’s top-five leagues.

PLAYER STATS

• Berardi has been directly involved in five goals in his last four league games (two goals, three assists) and has helped contribute four goals (two goals, two assists) in his last four league matches against the Giallorossi.
  
• Tammy Abraham’s 10 league goals are on par with Berardi’s top-flight return, with just Lautaro Martinez (11), Giovanni Simeone (12), Dusan Vlahovic and Ciro Immobile (both 18) scoring more in Serie A this term.
  
• Lorenzo Pellegrini, who featured 47 times for Sassuolo, is just one goal away from a career best single-season return in Serie A that saw him net seven times in 2020-21.
  
• Bryan Cristante has scored four Serie A goals against Sassuolo, at least twice as many as he has netted against any other side. He has delivered two league assists against the Neroverdi.

WHAT THEY SAID

“It's a pity, but I'm happy with the performance, especially after recent outings. We had come here to play our game. We had to make some changes, as Berardi and [Hamed] Traore have to play the next game at the weekend, but we would've been happy to play extra time and I feel we'd have deserved it too."

- Sassuolo coach Alessio Dionisi after the cup loss to Juventus