Sassuolo beat Como 2-1 at home, and the result was decided in a three-minute corridor straddling half-time — three goals between the 42nd and 45th minutes that compressed an entire match into a single, barely-breathable passage of play.
The first half had been tetchy rather than open. Two yellow cards arrived before the half-hour mark, and the game moved in fits and starts, neither side establishing the kind of sustained pressure that forces a defence to reorganise. Then, in the space of three minutes at the end of the half, the match produced everything it had withheld. Sassuolo's Armand Laurienté and his teammates fashioned the opener at 42 minutes, Como — through Alvaro Morata and the visitors' attacking unit — responded almost immediately, and then Sassuolo struck again before the referee's whistle ended the half. Two goals for the hosts, one for Como, and the contest was effectively framed before the teams reached the dressing room.
Fabio Grosso's Sassuolo managed the second half with the pragmatism that a one-goal lead demands. Three substitutions arrived at the 46th minute — an unusually aggressive tactical intervention that signalled Grosso's intention to protect the shape rather than extend it. Como pressed, earned a yellow card at 51 minutes and another at 64, and Cesc Fàbregas's side introduced changes of their own, but the Neroverdi's defensive structure absorbed the pressure without conceding a second time. By the time the sixth yellow card of the afternoon was shown at 82 minutes, the result was settled.
Sassuolo midfielder Kristian Thorstvedt was the player who most shaped the contest. Operating in the centre of a midfield that also featured Nemanja Matić's positional authority and Ismael Koné's mobility, Thorstvedt provided the connective tissue between the defensive line and the attacking third. His work in the 40-to-45-minute window — the period that produced all three goals — was the kind that a match rating captures only partially: the pressing triggers, the short combinations that opened the half-spaces, the willingness to arrive late into the penalty area when the moment called for it. Sassuolo's two goals in that period did not happen by accident.
Como's defeat is partly explained by a structural vulnerability that has appeared across their recent fixtures. Fàbregas's side conceded four against Inter facing them at home on April 12, and while the 5-0 win against Pisa on March 22 and the victory against AS Roma on March 15 demonstrated their attacking capacity, the defensive record in competitive matches has been inconsistent. Against Sassuolo, the visitors' back line — Jean Butez behind a unit including Marc Kempf and Ivan Smolčić — was exposed in the specific three-minute window when the hosts accelerated. Nico Paz and Martin Baturina had the technical quality to create chances, but Como's inability to hold a level scoreline at 1-1 — the equaliser came at 44 minutes, the Sassuolo winner at 45 — meant Fàbregas's side spent the entire second half chasing a goal they never found.
For Sassuolo, the three points consolidate a form line that has been uneven but productive at home: wins against Cagliari on April 4 and now Como, bracketing a loss at Genoa on April 12. The draw at Juventus on March 21 added texture to the picture of a side capable of competing against the upper tier. For Como, the defeat follows losses to Inter and now Sassuolo in their last two away fixtures, and Fàbregas's project — ambitious in its squad construction, with Morata leading the line and Caqueret providing midfield quality — is accumulating a points deficit that the remaining fixtures will need to address directly.
A month from now, this match will be remembered as the afternoon three goals arrived in three minutes and made everything that followed irrelevant.