Sassuolo slumped to a 1-0 defeat at the Mapei Stadium to high-flying Parma as the visitors made it 14 unbeaten on Sunday afternoon in their Serie A clash.
Parma should have been out of sight by half-time but in the end only managed to win courtesy of Marco Parolo’s second minute strike and really have goalkeeper Antonio Mirante to thank for the victory.
Things began in disastrous fashion for under pressure Alberto Malesani when Parma took the lead within two minutes as Marco Parolo put the home side in front. Jonathan Biabiany did extremely well to pull the ball back and find Parolo in the box who made the finish look easy to give the visitors an early lead.
This lead was nearly doubled within moments as an Antonio Cassano cross from the right found his strike partner Amauri in the six-yard-box. The big man somehow managed to miss the target completely as he headed down and wide of Gianluca Pegolo’s goal when he really should have scored.
Parma thought they had doubled their advantage a quarter of an hour into the game as Cassano’s cross from deep found Alessandro Lucarelli unmarked in the Neroverdi box and he poked the ball past Pegolo in the Sassuolo goal. Lucarelli’s celebrations were cut short as his strike was correctly ruled out for offside.
It wasn’t long before the visitors came close once again. A loose, bouncing ball just outside the Sassuolo box invited Amauri to run up and unleash a vicious strike at goal but his effort went narrowly over Pegolo’s bar. Luckily for Sassuolo the effort was always rising, Pegolo had no chance of stopping it had it been a few inches lower.
Just before half-time Amauri missed another good chance to give his side a comfortable lead at the break. A well worked triangle at the edge of the box resulted in a slipped through ball from Cassano who found Amauri beyond the Sassuolo defence but he fluffed the chance and fired into the side netting.
Sassuolo and Malesani will have been relieved to only find themselves one goal behind at the break.
The second half began very much as the first period played out, Parma attacked straight away and should have scored again less than two minutes into the half. A Cassano cross from the right was half cleared to the edge of the box and the oncoming Walter Gargano fired over the bar with a chance that he really should have hit the target with.
A relatively quiet start to the second half saw Sassuolo grow into the game. Antonio Cassano missed a good chance at one end before two brilliant saves within a minute from Antonio Mirante kept the hosts behind and frustrated.
Domenico Berardi was finally introduced to the game with 20 minutes to play but the 19-year-old didn’t last long as he got himself sent off 48 seconds after being introduced for stupidly reacting to a tackle on him by elbowing Cristian Molinaro.
Mirante was once again called into action as the ten men of Sassuolo threatened. Antonio Floro Flores did well to control a ball into the box and volley at goal but the Italian shot-stopper proved hard to beat once again.
Four minutes added time proved not to be enough for Sassuolo as Parma managed to see out the game to claim a 1-0 victory in what should have been a much more comfortable victory.
Follow Conor Clancy on Twitter: @concalcio
