Sassuolo’s European ambitions suffered a significant blow as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Udinese at the Mapei Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
New coach Luigi De Canio could hardly believe his luck when Duvan Zapata broke the deadlock in the 7th minute but the hosts responded after the interval when Matteo Politano met Federico Peluso’s cross.
The visitors opened the scoring inside seven minutes when Zapata escaped the attentions of Francesco Acerbi and cushioned Cyril Thereau square ball beyond Andrea Consigli.
Lorenzo Pellegrini almost levelled in the 20th minute when his header from a Sime Vrsaljko free-kick looped just over the crossbar.
Consigli was forced into an acrobatic stop when Felipe powered a header that was arrowing towards the bottom corner on 36 minutes.
Silvan Widmer ought to have doubled his side’s advantage on the stroke of half-time when he was ushered in by Thereau but could not lift his effort over an advancing Consigli.
Zapata flashed an effort wide at the front post after Widmer’s enticing cross.
He would be left to rue that miss when Sassuolo restored parity in the 64th minute.
Shifting the ball out left, Peluso delivered a tantalising cross towards Politano at the far stick and the forward powered his header into the top corner.
Reinforcements were called for the Zebrette as Antonio Di Natale emerged from the bench with fifteen minutes remaining.
Politano was denied his and the Neroverdi’s second of the afternoon by a heroic block from Emil Halfredsson on the edge of the penalty area.
Thereau squandered a golden opportunity to restore the away side’s lead when he ghosted into the danger area but crashed his shot into the side netting.
Nicola Sansone crashed a free-kick into the wall as the contest drew to its conclusion.
Sassuolo move to within three points of AC Milan in sixth place while Udinese remain only five points clear of safety.
