Sassuolo coach Alessio Dionisi says they'd have been closer to Napoli last night with Domenico Berardi available.

Napoli went 18 points clear at the top of the table with Friday's 2-0 win.

Dionisi said, “We certainly faced a strong and confident team, they showed that again today. It's a pity, in some situations we could have reopened the game or stay in it.

“Napoli deserved to win, but at 2-0 we had some chances and we deserved to stay in the game. But Napoli have a lot of quality and it wasn't easy, so I'm satisfied with what we did.

“They fielded all the best players, we didn't field our best player (Berardi, ed.) and I'm convinced that with him we would have made it harder for Napoli. But I'm happy with the performance."

He added, “I think it was a good performance. I won't say excellent because to be excellent we would have kept the result in the balance. Napoli know how to attack in many ways and it's not easy.

“Perhaps the only thing we could have done was to go a little deeper, at times in the first half we didn't manage that. I only asked for respect for the referee and respect for the opponent, otherwise there would have been no game.

“Sassuolo were in the game and we had our chances. We cannot have regrets, I must praise the performance. It cannot be enough for us, because we also wanted to score, but it is a performance from which we can build on."