Volpato and Berardi give Sassuolo the win over a resilient Torino

Cristian Volpato curled a left-footed effort home from outside the box and the MAPEI Stadium erupted, but Torino needed less than a minute to put a damper on the celebration: right at the start of the second half, Pietro Comuzzo headed in an equalizer. Domenico Berardi struck the final 2-1 in the 77th minute, in a Serie A match that Sassuolo ended up winning by the skin of its teeth.

The first half had already hinted at a night full of chances: in the 1st minute, Simone Cinquegrano rattled the crossbar, and both Armand Laurienté and Vasilije Adzic had their own answers at the opposite end. Torino, for its part, kept pushing through Nikola Vlasic and Ché Adams, who tested Arijanet Muric without success. The home side's reward came in the 31st minute: Volpato connected with a left-footed strike from outside the area, set up by Adzic, to make it 1-0.

That lead did not even survive to a full halftime break. In the first minute of the second half, with the scoreboard still warm, Alessio Cacciamani whipped in a cross that Comuzzo headed home by the left post to make it 1-1. The match, which had seemed to be tilting Sassuolo's way, was blown wide open again.

The second half continued with chances at both ends (Kristian Thorstvedt, on the field after Sassuolo's double substitution, and Laurienté both tried their luck without success) until Berardi, who had come on for Kieron Bowie, made his mark. In the 77th minute, after a free kick was taken and Fedde Leysen headed the ball on, Sassuolo's captain struck a left-footed shot from the center of the box to make it a final 2-1. There were no further goals, though Torino created one last chance through a Kian Fitz-Jim shot in stoppage time that flew just wide.

What the numbers say

Sassuolo dominated in shots but gave up the ball, finishing with less possession and fewer passes than its opponent, an imbalance explained by the visitors' insistence on ball circulation without translating it into clear-cut chances.

The xG calculated after the fact from the match's shots comes out close: 1.579 for Sassuolo versus 1.361 for Torino, a gap that backs up the home side's offensive volume but also makes clear the result was not a statistical rout.

Beforehand, our projection gave Sassuolo a 46% chance of winning, against 26% for Torino and 28% for a draw, with expected goals of 1.60 for the home side and 1.14 for the visitors. The outcome landed fairly close to that script: a home win, though with a Torino side that managed to level the match and made things harder than the forecast suggested.

The standings, still a work in progress

With this result, Sassuolo moves to 3 points after two matches played (one win and one loss), sitting in the middle of the table, just 3 points ahead of Torino, which is still without a win through two outings and remains at the bottom of the standings with 0 points. It is far too early in the season to draw any firm conclusions, but Sassuolo will take a victory that came through sheer persistence: 19 shots, two goals, and a Torino response that was not enough to leave the MAPEI Stadium with anything to show for it.