Sassuolo coach Alessio Dionisi admits they were ‘not 100 per cent convincing’ in a 3-2 win over 10-man Hellas Verona, but it was a good start to the season.
His men emerged with a 3-2 victory at the Stadio Bentegodi, tougher than it perhaps should’ve been considering Miguel Veloso saw red for Verona in the first half.
“We might not have been 100 per cent convincing, but it’s early days and we were missing some players too,” Dionisi told DAZN.
“It was a good first half, we made one mistake in the second and that was not killing the game off. Verona deserve credit for never giving up.”
This was Dionisi’s first ever Serie A appearance as a coach, having helped Empoli to promotion last term and then replaced Roberto De Zerbi at Sassuolo.
“These are players who for years have been focused on possession football, so I am just trying to give some consistency to that work. The third goal did have a lot of passes building up to it, but if Junior hadn’t invented this extraordinary finish, then it would’ve all been for nothing.
“We were very audacious today with four strikers, but they worked for the team. We were a little unbalanced at times and need to work on that, as Verona could’ve hurt us on the counter.”