Sassuolo were beaten 1-0 by Fiorentina at the Mapei Stadium in Serie A on Sunday afternoon.

Giuseppe Rossi’s late second half strike proved enough to earn three points despite his side being largely off the pace for the majority.

Sassuolo started well against the Viola with Domenico Berardi having a shot saved by Neto, but as expected they found possession difficult to come by.

Borja Valero had a penalty claim turned away by the referee after he was bundled over by Luca Antei.

Despite having the majority of the ball, Fiorentina didn’t really make any headway and struggled to create any clear cut chances.

As the first half wore on Sassuolo edged further into the game and looked particularly dangerous on the counter attack, though found that final ball wanting.

It took over 30 mins for Fiorentina to have an effort of note with Josip Ilicic having a shot from the edge of the area, but it was easily dealt with by Gianluca Pegolo.

That seemed to spring the home side into life. Luca Marrone had a shot blocked after Macello Gazzola headed the ball down from a corner.

Moments later Simone Zaza then went on a run from his own half, turned Stefan Savic inside out but struck his shot directly at Neto.

The Neroverdi once more looked dangerous and had the final opportunity of the opening period as Zaza was played through on goal by Berardi, but he was rightly flagged for offside.

Fiorentina started the second period brightly and Giuseppe Rossi went close after a free kick was swung in from the right, but the Italian international could only poke the ball over the bar.

Neto almost cost side as he dallied on a back pass with Reto Zeigler bearing down on him, but the goalkeeper calmly rode the challenge from the defender and blasted the ball away.

The closest Fiorentina came to a goal was from Valero as an Ilicic ball across the penalty area was poorly cleared by Lino Mazoratti, but the Spaniard could only fire into the side netting.

Following a lull in the match Rossi brought it to life somewhat with an excellent curling effort from the edge of the penalty area, but an outstretched arm from Pegolo put it out for a corner.

From the resulting set piece Pegolo was once again called into action, this time it was a Massimo Ambrosini header that looked destined for the left corner.

However, it proved to be in vein as Rossi broke the deadlock in the 81st minute with an excellent low strike from 18 yards which nestled nicely in the bottom left corner.

Sassuolo went all out to find an equaliser in the final 10 minutes, but were susceptible on the counter attack. Rossi was again the architect as he put Ilicic one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but the Slovenian hit the post when he really should have doubled the Viola’s lead.