The five goals scored in Florence, the bitter protest of the fans who followed the team to the Franchi and a gap in the standings that is becoming really difficult to recover for a team that hasn’t won a match since March 9th. With these undeniable certainties begins one of the most difficult weeks in Sassuolo’s now long history in Serie A. Ballardini’s team yesterday conceded everything and more to Italiano’s Fiorentina, despite the obvious importance of a match in which the neroverdi were forced to score points to avoid the escape of the fourth-to-last in the standings, a place that currently belongs tied with Empoli, Frosinone and Hellas Verona. And instead it went very badly.
The calendar: two direct clashes and two big ones, a very tough path
With five points to recover out of twelve available for the Neroverdi, even a clear path might not be enough, but imagining a poker of victories by Ballardini’s team now appears utopian at the very least. Indeed, already in the next home round against Italian champions Inter the picture could become very dark, in the event of not very favorable results. The two direct clashes that will arrive, assuming that a match against Genoa can be defined in this way, which already has a 13 point advantage over the penultimate place, will have to give the impetus to go all out in the final match, away at the Olimpico against Lazio. Let’s be clear: if Sassuolo still has any hope of reaching salvation, they will have to achieve it in the last minutes of the last match.
Before the Biancocelesti, however, it will be imperative to take away the three points from the home match against Cagliari: reaching the penultimate matchday still in the running would already be a good start and at that point the black-green team will have to deserve the 2024/25 Serie A by winning against that of Ranieri, who could also already be sure of staying in the top division at that moment.