Torino coach Paolo Vanoli gives an update on the serious Duvan Zapata injury and blames Guillermo Maripan for the red card in their 3-2 defeat to Inter.
The two teams went into this match at San Siro both level on 11 points, as the Granata had been the Serie A leaders until last week’s 3-2 loss to Lazio.
They had the worst possible start here, because at the 20th minute Maripan lunged into Marcus Thuram’s ankle and his yellow card was changed to red following a VAR On-Field Review.
“A player of his experience cannot make a mistake like that,” Vanoli told Sky Sport Italia.
“I have to congratulate the rest of the team, because down to 10 men, they all gave something extra. We are working on improvements to the defence and other areas.”
Vanoli sees Torino progress
Toro have impressed so far this season and Vanoli appears to have brought a different spirit.
“I think this squad has a lot of quality, although naturally it will take time after three years of playing a very different style of football. This game helped me realise what I can draw from and we will work to bring more of that out.
“A coach must also know how to take defeats and show his players the positives that can be taken from them. We were never kidding ourselves when we were top of the table and we won’t lose heart now either.
“Even in defeat, we realised that we are on the right track and down to 10 men we showed real organisation and heart.”
There was an incident far worse than the defeat, as Duvan Zapata was stretchered off and the suspicion is that he has torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
“All we can do is cross our fingers and hope. It would seem to be a sprained knee, but we have to wait for the test results,” concluded Vanoli.
He watched the game from the stands, as he was sitting out a one-match touchline ban.