Domenico Berardi continued his impressive season for Sassuolo on Sunday with a brace of penalties in a 4-1 win at struggling Venezia.
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Italy winger Berardi struck from the spot in the 17th and 71st minutes in an entertaining match in which Giacomo Raspadori opened the scoring in the second minute and Gianluca Scamacca netted another spot-kick just before the half-hour mark.
Berardi has scored 12 times this league season and is also in double figures for assists in the best campaign of his career.
With Federico Chiesa out for the season the 27-year-old will be in Italy boss Roberto Mancini's thoughts ahead of the Azzurri's crucial 2022 World Cup qualification playoffs later this month.
Alessio Dionisi's flamboyant Sassuolo sit 10th on 39 points after a win which wasn't all one-way traffic on the Venice Lagoon.
Thomas Henry cut the deficit to two goals when he headed home his sixth of the season shortly after Scamacca scored, but the hosts missed chances in a strong period just after half-time and Berardi punished their profligacy.
Paolo Zanetti's Venezia are third-from-bottom on 22 points, three behind Cagliari who were thumped 3-0 by Lazio on Saturday.
Genoa are four points behind Venezia in 19th after Alexander Blessin became the first Serie A coach to draw his first six matches in charge following a goalless stalemate with Empoli.
Fiorentina were held 1-1 at home by Verona while Bologna were booed off the field after a goalless draw with Torino.