Berardi vs. Ac Milan: the saga continues
Some rivalries become part of a player’s story season after season. The one between Domenico Berardi and AC Milan is certainly one of them: almost 13 years of goals, records and memorable nights that have turned the Bocchigliero-born forward into one of the Rossoneri’s great bogeymen.
On Sunday 11 October at 18:00 CEST, the Rossoneri will return to the very place where it all began. Waiting for them at the MAPEI Stadium will be one of the most difficult opponents in AC Milan’s recent history: of Berardi’s 12 league goals against the Rossoneri, nine have come at Sassuolo’s home ground.
It all began with four goals
The first chapter remains the most remarkable. On 12 January 2014, during Sassuolo’s debut season in Serie A, Massimiliano Allegri’s AC Milan travelled to the MAPEI Stadium. Berardi was just 19 years old, but that evening he truly announced himself on the Italian football scene: four goals in a 4-3 Neroverdi victory, making him the first player ever to score four times against AC Milan in a single match and the youngest player to score four goals in Serie A since Silvio Piola.
It was a performance that left its mark: the following day, Allegri was sacked.
That night, however, was far from an isolated episode.
Just over a year later, again at the MAPEI Stadium, Berardi scored a hat-trick in a 3-2 victory in May 2015. Seven goals in his first two home matches against the Rossoneri: what had seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime feat was beginning to take on the shape of a genuine saga.
The thread was never broken and, season after season, it accompanied the trajectories of Sassuolo and their number 10. Almost bringing the story full circle: 12 years after the four-goal haul, with Allegri once again on the Rossoneri bench, Berardi struck again at the MAPEI, opening the scoring in Sassuolo’s 2-0 victory on 3 May 2026.
From Piola to Berardi: The Rossoneri’s great nightmares
Berardi’s special relationship with AC Milan has now placed him alongside some of the great names in Serie A history. Twelve goals in 20 matches: only Silvio Piola (22) and Enrico Chiesa (14) have scored more goals against the Rossoneri in Serie A.
Sassuolo’s number 10 shares the tally of 12 with Stefano Nyers, Carlo Reguzzoni and Antonio Di Natale. Nyers reached the same figure in just 15 appearances, while Chiesa scored two more goals in the same 20 matches that Berardi has played against AC Milan.
His goal in the most recent meeting also made AC Milan Berardi’s favourite opponent in Serie A, level with Sampdoria. At 32 years of age, he can continue to climb the list: three more goals would see him overtake Chiesa and become, behind Piola alone, the player with the most goals against AC Milan in Serie A history.
Among players still active, Lautaro Martínez has nine goals, while Paulo Dybala and Duván Zapata have eight each and Matteo Politano has seven.
The Bogeymen are still active
Berardi vs. AC Milan is not the only such rivalry still alive in today’s Serie A. There are teams that continue to come up against an opponent capable, year after year, of becoming their nemesis.
Starting with Sassuolo themselves, whose all-time bogeyman is still active: Duván Zapata, has scored 10 goals in 21 matches against the Neroverdi. Lazio, meanwhile, have had to contend with Giovanni Simeone. Cholito, son of former Biancocelesti great Diego, has scored 10 goals in 17 appearances against the capital club. Against Udinese, meanwhile, Paulo Dybala stands out, having scored 12 goals in 22 meetings with the Friulani.
And who else could be Inter’s recent nemesis if not Domenico Berardi? The Sassuolo number 10’s special relationship with Milan does not end with the Rossoneri: he has scored eight goals in 18 matches against Inter, four of them at San Siro.
Berardi vs. AC Milan: more than just goals
The goals tell only part of Berardi’s impact against AC Milan. The Neroverdi number 10 has also provided seven assists, contributing directly to 19 goals: almost one goal involvement per appearance and around two-thirds of the 29 goals Sassuolo have scored against the Rossoneri in the 20 Serie A matches he has played.
His impact on results is also significant. In the seven matches in which Berardi has scored, Sassuolo have won five times, collecting 15 of the 21 points available; four of his goals, moreover, have proved directly decisive in securing victory.
The MAPEI Stadium remains at the heart of the saga, but some of Berardi’s great performances against AC Milan have also come at San Siro. In November 2021, Sassuolo inflicted AC Milan’s first defeat of the season under Pioli and ended a home unbeaten run that had lasted almost a year. It was “Mimmo” who completed the 3-1 victory, sitting Romagnoli down with a feint inside the box before finishing off the Neroverdi comeback.
In January 2023, he once again dominated the stage at San Siro: in Sassuolo’s stunning 5-2 victory, Berardi produced a goal and three assists, one of the most complete performances in his long history against the Rossoneri.
Numbers and images spread across more than 12 years of Italian football. In the meantime, teammates, coaches and ambitions have changed, and above all, AC Milan have changed: from the final years of the Berlusconi era to Pioli’s Scudetto, and now back to Allegri. Amid all these transformations, Berardi has remained a constant. On Sunday, on the very pitch where the story began, the saga will add its twenty-first chapter.