Berardi extends stellar show as Sassuolo down Venezia; Roma boost CL hopes
Berardi struck from the spot in the 17th and 71st minutes in an entertaining match in which Raspadori opened the scoring in the second minute and Scamacca neted another spot-kick just before the half-hour mark
Domenico Berardi continued his impressive season for Sassuolo on Sunday with a brace of penalties in a 4-1 win at struggling Venezia.
Italy winger Berardi struck from the spot in the 17th and 71st minutes in an entertaining match in which Giacomo Raspadori opened the scoring in the second minute and Gianluca Scamacca neted another spot-kick just before the half-hour mark.
Berardi has scored 12 times this league season and is also in double figures for assists in the best campaign of his career.
With Federico Chiesa out for the season the 27-year-old will be in Italy boss Roberto Mancini’s thoughts ahead of the Azzurri’s crucial 2022 World Cup qualification playoffs later this month.
Alessio Dionisi’s flamboyant Sassuolo sit 10th on 39 points ater a win which wasn’t all one-way traffic on the Venice Lagoon.
Thomas Henry cut the deficit to two goals when he headed home his sixth of the season shortly ater Scamacca scored, but the hosts missed chances in a strong period just ater half-time and Berardi punished their profligacy.
Tammy Abraham boosted Roma’s Champions League hopes on Saturday with the only goal in a 1-0 win over Atalanta which moves his team to within three points of the top four.
England international Abraham classily finished the 13th goal of his debut Serie A season as Jose Mourinho’s side closed in on fourth-placed Juventus before their match with Spezia on Sunday.
Roma are unbeaten in seven league matches and their win over Atalanta was characterised by a steeliness that had been missing earlier in the season.
The 24-year-old has decided two straight matches ater neting the winning penalty in the 99th minute at Spezia last weekend and looks happy in Rome ater a difficult end to his time at Chelsea under Thomas Tuchel.
Abraham has scored seven times in all competitions since the turn of the year, taking his overall season’s tally to 20, and the way he took his winner highlighted the confidence with which he is playing.
Strike partner Nicolo Zaniolo, who decided against playing with a face mask despite fracturing his nose at Spezia, beautifully took down Rick Karsdorp’s raking long pass on the turn before feeding Abraham.
Abraham used his first touch to burst through the centre of the Atalanta defence before poking a low shot under Juan Musso.
An Atalanta side missing key forwards Duvan Zapata and Josip Ilicic struggled to make openings but stay fith, level on 47 points with Roma, who finished with 10 men ater Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s late red card.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta also had a man sent off late when Marten de Roon was booked twice in the space of seconds for dissent.
Lazio are a point behind Roma in seventh ater seeing off relegation-threatened Cagliari 3-0 in Sardinia. A penalty from Ciro Immobile, a club record-equalling 143rd league goal for Lazio, a beautiful counter-atack goal started and finished by Luis Alberto and a Felipe Anderson strike handed Cagliari just their second league defeat of 2022.
Walter Mazzarri’s Cagliari are three points above the drop zone but can fall back into the botom three if Venezia beat Sassuolo on Sunday.
Earlier Udinese increased their survival bid with a 2-1 win over Sampdoria which moved them seven points above Venezia. Destiny Udogie scored for the second match in a row -- ater neting his first career goal at AC Milan last weekend -- to ensure a home win.