Sassuolo v Inter stat pack

MILAN – After last weekend’s draw at San Siro against Atalanta, Inter are preparing for Serie A Week 7 which will see the Nerazzurri face Sassuolo on Saturday 2 October at 20:45 at Mapei Stadium.

Simone Inzaghi's Inter sit on 14 points in the standings having scored 20 and conceded seven, while Sassuolo have claimed seven points from two wins, one draw and three defeats.

PREVIOUS MATCH-UPS

Sassuolo and Inter have faced each other 16 times, with the record standing at seven wins each and two draws, 0-0 in 2019 and 3-3 in 2020. Inter have remained unbeaten in the last five league games against the Neroverdi, winning three and drawing twice, after losing their previous four Serie A matches against them.

The Nerazzurri have always scored at least two goals in their last four Serie A matches against Sassuolo: 12 goals in total, as many as in the previous 10 games against them in the competition.

MAPEI STADIUM SHOWDOWNS There’s no differentiating between the two sides when they face at Mapei Stadium in Serie A, with  four wins apiece, but the last two matches have seen Inter come out on top, winning 4-3 in 2019 and 3-0 in 2020. Against no team have Sassuolo played more Serie A home games without ever drawing than against Inter - eight times, exactly the same number of games without drawing when facing Milan.

FORM BOOK

Sassuolo sit on seven points in the league, having picked up from two wins, one draw and three defeats. The Neroverdi head into Saturday’s match having beaten Salernitana 1-0 last time out. In three of the last four home league games Sassuolo have kept a clean sheet, which is as many clean sheets as in the previous 19 games at Mapei Stadium. Inter are the second team to have scored at least 20 goals in the first six Serie A matches this century, after Napoli scored 22 in the 2017/18 season. The Nerazzurri have scored more than one goal in each of their last 11 league games, and never in their history in Serie A have they gone on a longer streak of scoring at least two goals. They set the record of 11 games in 1943.

Looking at the wider picture, Inter have scored in 25 consecutive league games, setting a new record in this regard in the history of single-group Serie A.

In their last 28 Serie A away games, Inter have lost only twice - against Sampdoria and Juventus - and during this run they have scored at least one goal, with the exception of the 0-0 draw at Udinese in January 2021.

In their last five league games, Inter have both scored and conceded at least once per game. They have not gone on such a run of six consecutive Serie A games since November 2019, when they went seven games.  

STATS No team has scored more goals than Inter in the first six minutes and the final thirty minutes of play this season, and no team have done worse than Sassuolo in both these timeframes, failing to score at all in the first six minutes and only scoring once in the final half hour. Inter have scored more headers that any other team in Serie A this season at six, while Sassuolo are yet to score in this manner so far this campaign. The last header scored by a Sassuolo player in the league dates back to last April, coincidentally against the Nerazzurri. Inter have the best scoring percentage in the league on 21%, while Sassuolo are third from bottom in this ranking on 7%, only ahead of Venezia and Salernitana. The Neroverdi are the only team that are yet to score from a set piece in the league this season, while Inter have found the net five times in this manner, with only Bologna and Napoli ahead of them on six. Inter have the best percentage of successful crosses in the current season at 32% and have scored five goals from crosses. Only Genoa, with six, have done better so far this campaign. Inter have shared their goals among 11 players this season, more so than any other team in the league. Meanwhile only four Sassuolo players have found the net so far: Domenico Berardi, Filip Djuricic, Giacomo Raspadori and Hamed Traore.

PLAYER FOCUSWith nine goals scored so far, the Edin Dzeko-Lautaro Martinez partnership has been the most prolific in these first six league matches, the Bosnian striking five times and the Argentine four. Lautaro has scored four goals in his first five Serie A games of the season for the first time in his career. Dzeko has the best goals scored to expected goals ratio in the league this season, netting five times and with expected goals of 2.4. The Bosnian has scored at least five goals in his first six Serie A games of the season for the second time, after 2017/18 when he scored seven. He could become the first player in his debut season with the Nerazzurri to score at least six goals in Inter's first seven Serie A matches of the campaign since Ronaldo in 1997/98. Nicolo Barella has been involved in at least one goal in all of his six appearances in this league, with one goal and five assists. Only Paul Pogba and Karim Benzema at seven apiece have provided more assists than Nicolo Barella’s five in the top five European leagues in the 2021/22 season. One of Federico Dimarco's four away goals in Serie A came at Mapei Stadium against Sassuolo, when he was playing for Verona in March 2021.

PLAYERS SUSPENDED OR CLOSE TO SUSPENSION Sassuolo: - Inter: -