A Chievo own goal gave Torino a 1-0 win at the Stadio Bentegodi in Serie A action on Sunday afternoon.
After trading chances and possession for most of the match Gennaro Sardo was the only one who could find a goal in the second half, unfortunately for the Chievo Verona defender it was into his own goal, while Sergio Pellisier left the Flying Donkeys down to ten men just minutes after coming on as a substitute.
After a moment of silence to honor the victims of the Superga air disaster which claimed the lives of Il Grande Torino, the home side began the match the livelier of the two combatants as they pinned Torino in their own area early.
As early as the fourth minute Ivan Radovanovic tested Daniele Padelli from a free kick forcing the Toro keeper to tip the ball over the bar.
Torino soon settled and Alessio Cerci did amazingly well to leave two Chievo defenders for dead along the right touchline before stinging the palms of Michael Agazzi. Despite the effort on goal it was the Flying Donkeys who continued to dictate play and their best chance of the first half fell to the head of Alberto Paloschi inside the Torino penalty area but the Italian forward couldn’t steer his header on target.
Torino slowly began to come alive and finally, just after the half hour, they thought they had found the breakthrough when Immobile pounced on an errand punch out from the Chievo keeper rounded a defender and scored, only for the goal to be disallowed for a perceived foul on the goalkeeper.
Within moments of the disallowed goal, Torino had further reason to be upset with the referee when he waved away a hand ball in the Chievo penalty area after a Cerci cross deflected off the raised arm of Dario Dainelli. The defender was then lucky to remain on the pitch when he was shown a yellow card by the referee after elbowing Ciro Immobile in the face while being closed down by the striker.
In the second period, Torino finally scored the first goal of the match when Cerci’s corner was flicked on at the near post by Kurtic only to be steered into the goal by Flying Donkey defender Sardo.
With 30 minutes to go Eugenio Corini went to his bench bringing in Sergio Pellisier for defender Alessandro Bernardini.
The striker was soon in the referee’s book for all the wrong reasons after he received a yellow card for an elbow on Giuseppe Vives. Pellisier continued to argue with the referee and was shown his second yellow card only six minutes after coming on the pitch, leaving Chievo down to ten men.
Torino continued to press on for a second goal but Chievo were well organized defensively, despite being a man down.
An amazing save by Agazzi further frustrated Cerci but fortunately for the Granata, Sardo’s own goal was all they needed to leave the Bentegodi with all three points.
