Sassuolo 1-1 Cagliari

Cagliari dampened Sassuolo’s hopes of avoiding relegation after they played out to a 1-1 draw at the Mapei Stadium on Saturday evening. 

The fixture was a relegation scrap of note and it saw the Neroverdi hoping to build on last week’s shock 2-0 victory over Atalanta. 

They got off to a positive start, however, as Simone Zaza put them in the lead just after the half hour mark. The youngster did well to win the physical battle against Davide Astori to dink the ball underneath the bar. 

Cagliari were then afforded the opportunity to take something from the encounter when Agim Ibraimi stepped up and converted a powerful penalty past Gianluca Pegolo soon after the restart. 

Roma 3-1 Atalanta

Gervinho scored his eighth goal for Roma as they went on to claim a 3-1 victory over Atalanta to move within five points of league leaders Juventus. 

Atalanta were looking to bounce back from a shock defeat at home to Sassuolo, their first match without a win in six games, but it was always going to be a difficult task against a buoyant Roma side. 

The Giallorossi didn’t waste much time in creating their own chances at goal and they snatched the lead through Rodrigo Taddei, who tapped in a stray ball from a pull-back off the byline. 

Rudi Garcia’s men doubled their advantage upon entering the break when Gervinho and Francesco Totti started off a move. The ball was thread to Daniele De Rossi and he poked it back for the onrushing Adem Ljajic to make it 2-0. 

The Ivoirian put the result beyond a doubt through a Totti back-heeled flick to Ljajic. The scorer touched it for Gervinho and he sprung offside trap to beat the ‘keeper. 

Migliaccio pulled one back for the Nerazzurri on 78 minutes, but it was too little too late for Stefano Colantuono’s men.