AC Milan may have produced their best display of the season away at Torino, as Marco Giampaolo claimed, but it wasn’t enough as an Andrea Belotti brace gave the home side three points.
The pressure will now be building considerably at the San Siro after they let a lead slip to lose to the Granata, something that hadn’t happened in this fixture since the days of the mythical Grande Torino.
It was an important win for the hosts too, whose excellent start had dovetailed a little after dismal defeats to subpar Lecce and Sampdoria sides, making this a much-needed three points for the hosts.
Give the kids a chance
Afterwards, Giampaolo hailed this as his side’s best performance of the season which didn’t receive the result that it merited and there was a large degree of truth to that statement.
They came into the game with two losses and two wins with just two goals to show for it, with only one coming from open play – highlighting just how badly they have struggled to create chances.
In each of their games until now, the Diavolo have been lifeless, lacking any kind of attacking threat and giving defences easy afternoons at the office.
Although they again failed to score from open play (their goal came via Krzystof Piatek taking his penalty record in Serie A to a perfect four for four), this was much more encouraging from an attacking standpoint.
Admittedly at Milan, projects are something best left to the new stadium rather than the playing squad after years of misfiring and it is time for results to be delivered now.
They may have ended up with zero points again but there were at least large signs of optimism with ammunition finally being supplied to the attacking players and all of that came with a very youthful side.
Since the Italian top flight moved to three points for a win, only once before have Milan ever fielded a younger line-up than the one which took the field in Turin, with an average of 23 years and 224 days.
There is a clear emphasis to go with a younger spine going forward and if they can cut out some of the errors and take their chances, there’s at least something to build on but the road will certainly be rocky.
Two-man Toro show
Torino performed something of a smash-and-grab in this one as they relied on heroics from their main men at either end of the field to steer them to victory.
In attack, that honour fell to captain and star man Andrea Belotti, who is on course for a capocannoniere campaign at long last thanks to his late brace.
He displayed again how many facets he has to his game with an opportunistic attempt from outside the area catching Gigio Donnarumma unaware for the equaliser.
The winner was a thing of beauty as he turned a bad miss on its head by reacting instantly to engineer a close-range overhead kick and he should even have had a late assist too had Simone Zaza not slipped at the key moment.
Meanwhile in defence, Salvatore Sirigu was simply superb and kept Milan at bay with two magnificent saves from headers, one tipping a Rafael Leao effort out from under the bar and the other to deny Piatek at the death.
When it mattered most in looking to snap a losing run, Toro’s two biggest players stepped up to the plate in a big way.
