Sassuolo have repeatedly turned a routine league appointment into a test of Milan’s memory. The fixture has delivered records, a title-clinching afternoon and several painful reverses for the Rossoneri, who have gone three Serie A meetings without a victory against the Emilian club.
The decision
For Milan, the important choice is to treat Sassuolo as more than another opponent on the calendar. Their meetings have rarely been quiet, whether at San Siro or the Mapei Stadium, and Domenico Berardi has long been the name most associated with the difficult side of the story.
In January 2014, Berardi scored four times in 47 minutes as Sassuolo won 4-3. His side had arrived having failed to score for more than 400 minutes, yet the forward transformed the match and Milan dismissed Massimiliano Allegri less than a day later. Clarence Seedorf subsequently took charge.
Berardi struck another hat-trick at the Mapei Stadium in May 2015, when Sassuolo beat Milan 3-2. Across those two matches, he had scored seven times against the Rossoneri, establishing a pattern that would return in later encounters.
Sunday’s picture
There have also been defining Milan moments in this fixture. Gianluigi Donnarumma made his first Serie A start on 25 October 2015, aged 16 years and eight months. Sinisa Mihajlovic selected him after mistakes by Diego Lopez in preceding games, and Milan won 2-1 at San Siro. Donnarumma was not faultless, however: Berardi’s free-kick for the temporary equaliser exposed an imperfect response from the young goalkeeper.
Rafael Leao wrote a different kind of record at the Mapei Stadium in December 2020. He scored after six seconds and 76 hundredths, still the fastest goal in Serie A history. Brahim Diaz began the move, Hakan Calhanoglu found a route through the Sassuolo players, and Leao arrived at pace to beat Andrea Consigli. Stefano Pioli later explained that Milan had several rehearsed kick-off routines and that the goal had been prepared. The previous record had stood for 19 years, held by Paolo Poggi after his 2001 goal for Piacenza against Fiorentina in 7.20 seconds.
The happiest chapter came on 22 May 2022. Milan secured their 19th Scudetto with a 3-0 win at Sassuolo on the final day, Olivier Giroud scoring twice and Franck Kessie adding the other. Sassuolo were already safe and had little left to play for, while Milan completed a run shaped by February’s comeback derby win over Inter, when Giroud scored both goals in a 2-1 result. Pioli’s team then recorded ten victories and four draws across their final 14 league matches.
The reverse can be severe. Milan were beaten 5-2 by Sassuolo at San Siro in the 12.30 kick-off of January 2023, at the start of the second half of the season. Gregoire Defrel, Davide Frattesi, Berardi, Armand Lauriente and Matheus Henrique scored for the visitors. It followed a 4-0 defeat at Lazio and a 2-2 draw at Lecce, before Inter won the ensuing derby 1-0.
High scores have been a constant in this pairing, with 4-3, 3-2, 3-3 and 6-1 among the notable results. Milan’s more recent Serie A record includes two draws and one defeat in their last three meetings with Sassuolo. In the previous season, Sassuolo won 2-0 at the Mapei Stadium through Berardi and Lauriente, a defeat that damaged Milan’s pursuit of a top-four finish and exposed defensive shortcomings. The campaign ended with the objective missed after a final-day collapse against Cagliari at San Siro.
In the corresponding match in Milan that season, a Bartesaghi double was not enough as the teams drew 2-2. In Emilia in April 2024, Noah Okafor scored late to make it 3-3. Milan’s last Serie A victory over Sassuolo came in December 2023, a 1-0 success decided by Christian Pulisic. They did, however, beat Sassuolo 6-1 in the Coppa Italia in December 2024 to reach the quarter-finals.
