Sassuolo boss Alessio Dionisi praises Domenico Berardi and says the Neroverdi managed to beat Juventus thanks to their balance and courage.
Sassuolo beat Juventus 4-2 at the Mapei Stadium on Saturday, inspired by a superb performance from their captain Berardi who had pushed to join the Old Lady in August.
“It’s not easy to play with all these rumours around you, but Berardi handled the period after the transfer window really well and he’s proving it with his performance,” Dionis said at a press conference attended by Football Italia.
“We did what he had prepared defensively. Juventus dropped a little, but we remained in the game and I believe this made the difference. I expected this, everyone was fully available. In Serie A, when you don’t do well defensively, you concede goals against everyone,” continued the coach.
Armand Lauriente broke the deadlock in the first half and Dionisi praised the French winger too.
“He’s a lad who must be followed. Perhaps, he thinks he has already reached the top because he had never scored as many goals as last season,” said the Neroverdi boss.
“He must be helped now, he didn’t do the pre-season and today he did what I expected, especially defensively.
“We played with four strikers today, I don’t know how many teams in Serie A do it. We can do it again but we must be organised and balanced. If we do the same against Inter, we could put in another good performance.”
Sassuolo had lost 4-2 against Frosinone last week despite being 2-0 up after 24 minutes, but Dionisi didn’t fear his team would melt in the same way against Juventus.
“I smiled during the half-time break because we had already experienced the same situation,” he admitted.
“I said it to the guys and this, probably, helped us even if against Juventus anything can happen until the end. I liked the team, especially when the result was 2-2, some players were tired, but they all had courage, I hoped the team would react like this.”