At a rain-soaked MAPEI Stadium, the hosts found themselves in front on nine minutes, as a clever Matheus Henrique pass released Marcus Holmgren Pedersen down the left.
The Feyenoord loanee cut the ball back to Andrea Pinamonti, who was in enough space to confidently tuck home his eighth goal this season – also ending Fiorentina’s run of three straight shutouts in the process.
Fiorentina gradually wrestled back some control of the contest, but failed to land an effort on target before the break.
With each of the previous eight encounters between the sides seeing both teams find the net, there was still every belief that La Viola would eventually give Andrea Consigli a genuine test.
Yet, barely two minutes into the second half, Sassuolo thought they had doubled their advantage through Kristian Thorstvedt. However, the strike was controversially ruled out, following a lengthy VAR check for offside against Matheus Henrique, despite the midfielder not being in Pietro Terracciano’s line of sight when the Norwegian netted.
That let-off seemed to be the catalyst for a double change from Vincenzo Italiano, who introduced Lucas Beltrán and Alfred Duncan for Arthur Melo and Rolando Mandragora. In the aftermath of those switches, Fiorentina ratcheted up the pressure and won a penalty when Nikola Milenkovic’s header hit Gian Marco Ferrari’s outstretched left arm, albeit at close quarters.
Having been almost completely unoccupied up to that point, Consigli denied Giacomo Bonaventura with a brilliant dive to his left - although the stopper had his heart in his mouth before celebrating as another VAR check determined that he hadn’t strayed off his line.
Moments later, he thought he had been beaten by Lucas Martinez Quarta, but in more drama, the centre-back saw his hopes of an equaliser dashed as he had been offside before firing home.
Consigli was all of a sudden being peppered, keeping out Milenkovic’s header having relied on Ferrari to clear his lines from Beltran.
But Sassuolo ultimately survived a significant storm to secure their first Serie A triumph on their own patch since 23 September, meaning they head to Juventus on Tuesday week with their tails up, while Fiorentina need to get back to winning ways against Udinese with several sides breathing down their neck.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Andrea Consigli (Sassuolo)
