Antonio Sanabria converted a penalty to give Torino a precious victory over Monza, keeping their European hopes alive.
Only one point separated these teams going in and both were coming off positive results. Koffi Djidji, Ivan Ilic and Perr Schuurs were still out of action, while William Bondo was suspended with Danilo D’Ambrosio, Gianluca Caprari and Samuele Vignato not making the trip.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
Daniel Maldini’s curler was charged down in the box and Armando Izzo twice made decisive blocks on Duvan Zapata, with Adrien Tameze doing the same on Andrea Colpani.
Monza were unlucky to see Colpani’s viciously bending strike deflected inches off target by Samuele Ricci, while Michele Di Gregorio had to come rushing out to narrow the angle on Duvan Zapata from a long Ricardo Rodriguez pass.
Both sides threatened with headers, Andrea Carboni and Alessandro Buongiorno efforts testing the goalkeepers, while Di Gregorio at full stretch pushed away the low David Okereke finish.
Milan Djuric’s header on a Dany Mota Carvalho cross skimmed the far post, but Torino received a penalty for Matteo Pessina’s shirt tug on Samuele Ricci, which was converted by Antonio Sanabria.
Moments later, Pessina received a second yellow card for another challenge on Ricci, reducing Monza to 10 men.
Di Gregorio kept the scoreline down with a flying save on the deflected Duvan Zapata long-range strike, but there was late drama deep into stoppages.
Dany Mota Carvalho and Matteo Lovato both went to kick the ball at the same time in the penalty area, but the referee waved play on and VAR opted not to intervene either, as Monza wanted a spot-kick.
Torino 1-0 Monza
Sanabria pen 69 (T)
Sent off: Pessina 72 (M)
Player statistic
| 67' |  |
Matteo Pessina | ||
| Antonio Sanabria |  |
69' | ||
| 72' |  |
Matteo Pessina | ||
| 76' | |
Luca Caldirola |
Match statistic
