Serie A

Football Italia

·22 febbraio 2025

Serie A | Torino 2-1 Milan: Total Diavolo disaster

Milan’s week went from bad to worse, as Torino made the most of a comical own goal, quickly-taken free kick and parried Christian Pulisic penalty to win 2-1.

The Rossoneri were smarting after their shock Champions League play-off exit to Feyenoord, which saw Theo Hernandez foolishly sent off. Kyle Walker, Emerson Royal, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Alessandro Florenzi were all injured, so Alex Jimenez came in at right-back with the Fab Four again risked together. Toro gave January signings Cesare Casadei, Eljif Elmas and Cristiano Biraghi starts, but Adam Masina was suspended with Alieu Njie, Adrien Tameze, Perr Schuurs, Duvan Zapata, Ivan Ilic and Zanos Savva out.

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It was a total nightmare start for Milan, as Mike Maignan made a total mess of hoofing a long ball clear and kicked it against teammate Malick Thiaw, the ricochet taking it into the empty net behind them. By a bizarre coincidence, Thiaw had also scored an own goal when these sides met in a 2-2 draw on August 17.

Joao Felix combined with Tijjani Reijnders to send Santiago Gimenez clear, only for the finish to be palmed over the bar by Vanja Milinkovic-Savic.

Gimenez then only grazed his head to the Christian Pulisic cross-shot, but Marcus Pedersen foolishly flailed an arm over his head in unnatural fashion to charge down the Rafael Leao header for a penalty. Pulisic stepped up and for the first time in his career failed to convert from the spot, denied by the save from specialist Milinkovic-Savic.

Torino threatened to double their lead, as Guillermo Maripan got the header all wrong on a corner and Maignan parried the Pedersen follow-up.

Moments later, Maignan again reached up a trailing hand to push the Nikola Vlasic effort over, set up by Elmas.

Sergio Conceicao made a big gesture at half-time, taking Rafael Leao off for Youssouf Fofana.

TURIN, ITALY – FEBRUARY 22: Antonio Sanabria of Torino battles for possession with Malick Thiaw of AC Milan during the Serie A match between Torino and AC Milan at Stadio Olimpico di Torino on February 22, 2025 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)

The midfielder swept his finish wide from the edge of the area on a Tammy Abraham back-heel flick, then Milinkovic-Savic flew to parry the Joao Felix curler.

Milinkovic-Savic stuck out a long trailing leg to push the Reijnders strike over the bar after going clear through the centre, then watched the Alex Jimenez effort bend wide of the far post.

Joao Felix went so close, his scorcher thumping the upright from 10 yards on 69 minutes, though the goalkeeper again seemed to have it covered.

Gvidas Gineitis steered his finish wide from a Yann Karamoh knock-down, but Milan finally got their equaliser when Sebastian Walukiewicz only managed to clear as far as Reijnders to put his foot through it into the far top corner from 10 yards.

However, with Milan still fired up and pushing for a winner, they were caught distracted moments later when Sanabria took a free kick quickly to release Gineitis, beating Maignan one-on-one with an angled drive into the far bottom corner.

Karamoh rolled across the face of goal with Sanabria just unable to get the tap-in, then Sanabria fired over from a tricky angle after a long throw-in and Strahinja Pavlovic nodded wide.