by Stefano FoglianiSASSUOLO”We need a match at our highest level, raising the individual quality and the collective performance”. Who knows if it will be enough, given the lineage of the opponent, but the Sassuolo he has no other way to go if he wants to break the streak – nine home wins consecutive against the black-greens – who put the team of Grosso faced with precedents that leave no escape. At least on paper, because the field says otherwise, and suggests how theAtalanta Today’s result – 5 points in their last 6 games – is within reach of a Sassuolo side that has earned twice as many points as the Nerazzurri over the same distance. “We still expect a very difficult match, given the quality of our opponents,” the Neroverdi coach predicted, while also making it clear that the team had a lot of work to do this week. Looking at Atalanta, yes, but also at what went wrong on Monday night against Genoa. “We understood the things we could have done better, acknowledged certain shortcomings that then allowed our opponents to find opportunities that proved decisive: but every game for us is an opportunity to try to pick up the points we need and to grow.” The loss against Genoa was one of those, and today’s will be one of those, with Grosso entering the match with announced absences and who knows what ideas he has in mind for the starting eleven. Volpato and Boloca, Skjellerup and Satalino are out of action, along with Romagna and Pieragnolo. The Sassuolo team will likely be similar to the one that started the match against Genoa. There are play-offs in midfield (Vranckx, Kone, Thorstvedt all vying for two spots) and in attack, where Fadera threatens Laurientè, but Grosso doesn’t concede much in this regard, limiting himself to saying that “I have the men I need to play the game, and we’ll make substitutions as the game progresses. We’ll need to give our all, and the most important thing will be to play a solid match, with courage and focus. Without a great performance—the finish—I think it will be very difficult to get a positive result.” WOMEN’S. Sassuolo Femminile snatched a crucial point from former Inter Milan coach Gianpiero Piovani. At the Arena Civica in Milan the match ended 2-2, with Inter taking a two-goal lead in the first 15 minutes but then being caught by the Neroverdi, who halved the lead with Clelland and equalised with 5 minutes to go through Greve Chaib.
