Inter suffered just their second loss of the Serie A season at the hands of a revived Sassuolo outfit at Mapei Stadium on Saturday.
The home side were shock first-half leaders after Diego Falcinelli headed past Samir Handanovic against the run of play in the 34th minute.
Mauro Icardi saw his early second-half penalty saved by Andrea Consigli and it would remain the closest they would come to a goal as the Neroverdi secured a third consecutive victory.
It was a slow start to the clash with Inter dominating on the ball but failing to threaten Andrea Consigli’s goal early.
The match opened up after 24 minutes however when the home side pounced on a Milan Skriniar loose ball and found space in the box only for Domenico Berardi to scuff his shot wide. Within two minutes, the Nerazzurri had two of their own chances on goal, with Mauro Icardi, wrongly judged to be offside, uncharacteristically missing a simple chance in front of goal, before Ivan Perisic saw his headed effort saved by Consigli.
The away side continued to push forward but were unable to produce a quality final ball and were soon made to pay. Against the run of play, Matteo Politano took the ball up the other end of the field and delivered a perfect cross to find Falcinelli free in the box and the number 11 made no mistake, putting his body on the line to bury the ball home with a close-range header.
Inter looked for a reaction however a half-chance for Icardi in the final minutes of the first-half was as close as they would get before the break, Francesco Acerbi heading clear the danger.
Luciano Spalletti’s men started the second half with a spark and were soon presented a perfect opportunity to equalise when a Joao Cancelo cross hit the hand of Acerbi in his own box. However Consigli guessed correctly and saved Icardi’s resulting penalty as the Nerazzurri frustrations grew.
The away side remained dominant on the ball however were unable to beat an in-form Consigli, while Sassuolo continued to take advantage of the open space on the counter-attack.
A Danilo D’ambrosio injury forced Spalletti into a second substitution before using his final change to launch Joao Mario into the match at the expense of Miranda.
Though it was Sassuolo who soon came close to doubling their lead as Politano beat Dalbert before his shot was expertly saved by Handanovic.
In the 84th minute, Icardi did his best to set up Eder, heading the ball down only for the half-time substitute to hit the ball wide of the post.
Minor chances fell to Perisic and Eder however after 5 minutes injury-time, the Neroverdi had done enough to take all-three points, leaving the Nerazzurri winless in their last three league matches.
