Sassuolo settle for a draw despite quality chances

Sassuolo and Udinese took a point each from a 1-1 draw which the hosts will feel should have ended in their favour.

Simone Zaza continued his excellent recent form by giving Eusebio De Francesco's side the lead, but Cyril Thereau replied soon after to earn a point for Andrea Stramaccioni's visitors, whose last win came more than a month ago.

Sassuolo had the better chances to win but had to settle for a draw which extends their unbeaten run to three games with only one defeat in their last 12 league matches.

Zaza, who extended his contract until 2019 during the week, gave Sassuolo the lead 14 minutes into the match when he headed in Sime Vrsaljko's perfect cross.

An injury to Alexandre Geijo, who had to be replaced after 20 minutes, suggested a difficult evening for Udinese, but only five minutes later, they levelled.

Allan's finely-weighted pass found Thereau, who did the rest with a diagonal shot past Andrea Consigli, who was beaten with Udinese's first shot on goal.

The only other shots on goal in the first half all came from the hosts, who tried to restore their lead with another Zaza header which, this time, failed to hit the target.

The hosts also had the better of the early exchanges in the second half, and they thought they might have had a penalty too when Domenico Berardi went to ground in a clash with Maurizio Domizzi, but the referee waved play on, showing Paolo Cannavaro a yellow card for his protests.

Domizzi almost scored an own goal with 20 minutes when he slid in to deny Zaza an opportunity to score with Orestis Karnezis making a save.

Moments later, Udinese had their big chance to take the lead, but Bruno Fernandes missed their best opening of the second half.

It would have been harsh on Sassuolo, who had done more to win the game and almost did so when Berardi hit the post with five minutes to go, and that proved to be the last chance of the game.