Serie A | Torino 2-1 Verona: No hope for sorry Hellas
Torino found it tougher than expected, but Giovanni Simeone and Cesare Casadei sent plucky Verona to a fourth consecutive defeat.
The Granata were still without Duvan Zapata, Zakaria Aboukhlal and Zanos Savva, with Niels Nkounkou also left out. Hellas were practically doomed by defeat to Fiorentina, with Tomas Suslov suspended, Sandi Lovric, Armel Bella-Kotchap and Suat Serdar injured.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
There was a minute’s silence before kick-off for Ismael Pistis, an eight-year-old member of the Torino youth academy who was killed in a car crash this week.
It took just six minutes to break the deadlock, as Marcus Pedersen sprung the offside trap to nod down a ball over the top for Giovanni Simeone, who sent Andrias Edmundsson to ground with his first touch, firing in from 12 yards with the right boot. Just like when he scored against his old club earlier this season, Cholito did not celebrate.
Verona were unlucky not to equalise on 11 minutes, as Alberto Paleari mistimed his intervention on a free kick, allowing Roberto Gagliardini to nod it onto the crossbar.
They did get the deserved equaliser when Kieron Bowie was stronger than Ardian Ismajli on a Lorenzo Montipò long ball, shrugging off his marker and turning to score one-on-one.
Moments later, Verona threatened again with Antoine Bernede’s angled drive flashing just wide, while Che Adams fired off target for Torino.
The hosts were jeered off the field at half-time by their fans and came out with a different attitude for the restart, Simeone bending a finish inches wide.
They restored their lead when Rafa Obrador’s disguised shot from the edge of the area turned into an assist for Cesare Casadei to steer in first time from six yards.
Che Adams soared above the crowd to nod in another Obrador assist, this time a floated cross from the left, but it was disallowed because Simeone was offside in the build-up.
Simeone tried to make up for it by smashing a long-range strike wide moments later, while Ismajli charged down the Gift Orban attempt.
Torino 2-1 Verona
Simeone 6 (T), Bowie 38 (V), Casadei 50 (T)
Player statistic
| Giovanni Simeone (Assist: Marcus Pedersen) |
6' | |||
| Ardian Ismajli | 25' | |||
| 26' | Andrias Edmundsson | |||
| 38' | Kieron Bowie (Assist: Lorenzo Montipò) |
| 46' | Martin Frese | |||
| Cesare Casadei (Assist: Rafa Obrador) |
50' | |||
| 65' | Daniel Oyegoke | |||
| 90+5' | Nicolás Valentini |