Six minutes in, and then a long wait
Giacomo Raspadori scored inside six minutes. Atalanta spent the rest of the evening making a 2-1 win look like hard labour.
Maurizio Sarri got his three points on debut all the same. Sassuolo pulled level early in the second half through Odenthal, and Nikola Krstovic put the Bergamaschi back in front almost immediately. Nothing moved after that.
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Sarri was not impressed
The coach made no attempt to sell it in the press conference. He called the performance a slog and said his team were too passive without the ball.
Which was fair. Atalanta led, got pegged back, and went ahead again off a gift from the visitors. Sarri has walked into a squad assembled for a different kind of football and he is under no illusion about how long the rewiring takes.
Raspadori scored against the club that raised him. Sassuolo handed him his first Serie A minutes before he moved on. Six minutes was all he needed to make the point.
Sassuolo leave with nothing
The Emilia side did plenty of the running. They equalised, pushed, then came apart. One defensive error decided where the three points went.
Atalanta have them. On the opening Sunday, that is the whole of it, and Sarri has already said what he thinks about the rest.
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