Twelve minutes, two goals, three points
Sassuolo had the ball for 65 minutes out of every 90 and lost anyway. Monza beat them 2-1 on Friday night at the U-Power Stadium in the fifth round of Serie A, and Gustavo Varela scored both.
Nothing happened before the break. Goalless, flat, forgettable. Varela changed that in the 51st minute, finishing a Samuele Birindelli pass. Twelve minutes on he stepped up and converted a penalty.
Vasilije Adzic gave the visitors something in the 88th. He had come on at 72 for Sebastiano Esposito. By then the game had already gone.
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Four big chances against two, and the wrong scoreline
Alberto Aquilani’s side created more. Four clear openings to Monza’s two, two thirds of the possession, and one goal to show for all of it.
Ivan Juric set Monza up in a 3-4-2-1 and asked them to defend narrow. Sassuolo kept coming at a 4-3-3 and kept meeting the same block. It never cracked until the 88th minute, when it no longer mattered.
Varela finished with the best rating on the pitch at 7.7. Four goals now, second in the Serie A scoring chart. Adzic has three and sits fourth. Two names climbing a list the usual faces tend to own.
Bakola is quietly building a Serie A season
Darryl Bakola started in the Sassuolo midfield and came off in the 82nd for Skjellerup.
His passing numbers were among the best of the night: 53 completed from 56, a 95% rate. Gerald Baticle has since called him into the France Under-21 squad alongside Ethan Mbappe. The Serie A minutes are stacking up.
Monza took the three points without the ball, without the chances, and without much fuss. In Brianza on a Saturday morning, nobody is checking the possession column.
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