Torino President Urbano Cairo would not confirm whether Andrea Belotti and coach Davide Nicola will remain next season after securing safety.
The Granata needed a point to be sure of their Serie A safety without the final showdown with Benevento, and they scraped it at the Olimpico thanks to Ciro Immobile’s penalty thumping the post in a 0-0 draw with Lazio.
Torino President Urbano Cairo would not confirm whether Andrea Belotti and coach Davide Nicola will remain next season after securing safety.
The Granata needed a point to be sure of their Serie A safety without the final showdown with Benevento, and they scraped it at the Olimpico thanks to Ciro Immobile’s penalty thumping the post in a 0-0 draw with Lazio.
“It was a tense second half. The team was frightened and we also hit the upright with Antonio Sanabria, a moment that could’ve changed the game in our favour,” the President told Sky Sport Italia.
“Lazio gave their all and we knew they would, regardless of the fact Simone Inzaghi is (Benevento coach) Pippo’s brother, because they are a great team. This is a tough season, it started badly and got worse when we had eight players out with COVID, which saw us suffer some heavy defeats and struggle to field a team.”
Toro found themselves in real trouble after last week’s 7-0 home defeat to Milan, then crumbled in the head-to-head with Spezia too.
“I think we wanted to do so well against Milan that the team was drowning under pressure. So we tried to get back into it after going 2-0 down and left ourselves wide open to the counter-attack. That created a very negative state of mind and I tried to reassure the lads this evening, but you could tell it was still affecting them.”
This is the second year running that Torino have had to battle for Serie A safety when starting the season aiming for much higher. What has to change?
“We were seventh two years ago and finished ahead of Lazio. The team isn’t that different to what it was there. Davide Nicola did an excellent job since coming in and we picked up 22 points in the second half of the season, after 14 in the first.
“The results we hoped for did not arrive. The lack of the fans also didn’t help, because our stadium was a fortress. Now we need to do things right, because our fans were accustomed to better than this.”
Cairo was asked if top scorer Belotti and coach Nicola will remain at Torino next season.
“Belotti will go to the Euros and we’ll talk to him. We also need to talk to Nicola and consider the situation. Right now, we need to enjoy this evening, because it was not an easy result to achieve.”