The game turned in one minute, when Giangiacomo Magnani saw red and Tommaso Pobega scored after a bizarre ricochet, but 10-man Hellas Verona still put up a fight against Torino.
Toro coach Ivan Juric faced his former club days after crashing out of the Coppa Italia. Andrea Belotti, Simone Verdi and Simone Edera were injured, with Simone Zaza and Marco Baselli frozen out due to disciplinary reasons. Verona missed Nikola Kalinic, Koray Gunter, Gianluca Frabotta and Pawel Dawidowicz, but lost Antonin Barak in the warm-up, replaced by Kevin Lasagna.
There was a big early chance for Toro, the ball flashed across the face of goal from Tommaso Pobega down the left, but Dennis Praet somehow failed to make contact from a couple of yards.
The game changed on 25 minutes when Giangiacomo Magnani was robbed on the edge of the box by Antonio Sanabria and clearly grabbed onto the Torino man’s shorts to drag him down. It was originally only a yellow card, but VAR advised a reappraisal for the most cynical of last man fouls with no intention of playing the ball. It was all about stopping the clear scoring opportunity and changed to a straight red.
On the resulting free kick, Torino also took the lead, as the Ricardo Rodriguez set play bounced off Sanabria’s backside and into the path of Pobega from six yards.
Nonetheless, 10-man Verona almost equalised when Marco Davide Faraoni sprung the offside trap on a ball over the top and unleashed his half-volley, which Vanja Milinkovic-Savic palmed onto the upright.
Bosko Sutalo also saw his header flash just wide after a corner during a late siege, as it was difficult to tell the visitors had been a man down for over an hour, Faraoni volleyed wide after a poor clearance and Milinkovic-Savic flapped away a header deep into stoppages.
Torino 1-0 Verona
Pobega 26 (T)
Sent off: Magnani 25 (V)