The visitors, looking to maintain their unbeaten start to the campaign, nearly broke the deadlock within two minutes as Nico Gonzalez received possession outside the area and unleashed a vicious shot that whistled just over the bar.
Kerim Alajbegovic was also lively down the left, but his final ball frequently went astray, much to the frustration of head coach Luciano Spalletti. At the other end, Domenico Berardi was equally busy, even if he was often nullified by a resilient and organised Bianconeri defence.
In truth, both teams struggled to create too many chances before the interval. The Old Lady’s Teun Koopmeiners did carve out an opening, but his 20-yard strike lacked power and proved a straightforward save for Arijanet Muric, while Josh Doig burst down the left for the hosts before firing into the side netting.
Sebastiano Esposito then blazed off target from distance, and Berardi shot straight at Guglielmo Vicario from outside the box. The final chance of the half came at the other end, with Francisco Conceicao seeing a powerful drive thwarted by Muric.
Berardi remained involved after the break, with his curling left-footed strike expertly tipped around the post by Vicario. Unexpectedly, Sassuolo had the momentum for a short period, raising hopes they might be able to beat Juve for just the fifth time in their history. And, after thwarting a brief flurry of attacks from their opponents, the hosts duly took the lead just past the hour mark through Esposito, who broke the offside trap to run onto Nemanja Matic’s through ball and fire in at the far post.
The visitors had come from behind to gain a point in their previous outing, and they set about repeating that through Douglas Luiz, who had a vicious shot from distance superbly saved. And, after Adzic had a goal ruled out for offside for the hosts, Juventus equalised through substitute Edon Zhegrova, who capitalised on a poor punch by Muric to whip a shot around a defender and into the bottom corner.
The shot-stopper soon atoned for his error with a splendid save to thwart Alajbegović, before Nick Woltemade blazed off target from close range. Just when it looked like the game was up, another replacement, Kieron Bowie, stroked into the bottom corner from the edge of the area after being picked out by Darryl Bakola.
Sassuolo would have been forgiven for thinking that had guaranteed them the points, but Zhegrova had other ideas, smashing home another equaliser deep into injury time.
That was not the end of the action though, as Juve ultimately suffered their first away defeat since February when Adzic put Sassuolo in front once more, bursting onto a ball over the top and curling home.
The result means Sassuolo have seven points from four games, their most at this stage of a campaign since 2020. Juventus, meanwhile, will wonder how they didn’t grab at least a point after twice coming from behind, and will now turn their attention to their UEFA Europa League clash with NEC in midweek.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Edon Zhegrova (Juventus)
