Another offensive exhibition by Sassuolo at home, which, after squashing Sampdoria before the break, reserved the same treatment to SPAL, quickly recovering from a nightmare first half against Roma last week.
Roberto De Zerbi could not count on Marlon Santos, Mehdi Bourabia and Filip Djuricic due to injuries and fielded Vlad Chiriches in the back, Hamed Traore in the midfield over Manuel Locatelli and the Domenico Berardi-Francesco Caputo-Gregoire Defrel trident, which ran amok through the contest.
After a pair of minor chances, the Neroverdi commenced their show at the 26th minute, as Alfred Duncan kick-started a counter deep into his own territory, Berardi and Traore fuelled it with sharp passes that sprung Defrel loose in open space and the Frenchman fed Caputo with a square ball, which the striker slotted home with a cross-shot.
At the 43rd minute Caputo linked up with Berardi but a defender got in the way of an easy finishe, but the second goal arrived anyway before intermission, with the same combination but opposite roles: Berardi settled a soft ball over the top by Duncan with his chest, putting it in position for Caputo to rifle it home from the heart of the box.
Sassuolo rounded up the result two minutes into the second half as, after a confusing action, Berardi and Etrit Berisha tried to latch onto the ball at the same time and it spilled to Duncan, who just had to poke it home from inside the six-yard box.
Caputo almost put together a hat-trick but a vicious header hit the post and Traore was forestalled on the rebound. Andrea Consigli made an appearance after an hour, as Andrea Petagna perfectly fed the onrushing Alessandro Murgia, but his finish was brilliantly saved by the goalie. Murgia did found the target in the final minutes after a tenacious run by Petagna, but it was waived off due to an offside.
Caputo paced everybody with his eight points, followed by Consigli with seven and Duncan with six. Chiriches and Toljan amassed five for not conceding, Gianmarco Ferrari and Federico Peluso four because they were booked. Same amount for Berardi, who was credited with two assists, and Defrel, who had one helper but is listed as a midfielder. Two also for all the other players in that role thanks to the clean sheet.
Sassuolo moved up to the eight place with their second win of the season and will now look to improve on the road as well as they visit Parma on Wednesday.
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