Author: Amrit Santlani
Milan continued their emphatic start to the Serie A campaign with a 4-1 win over Torino on Saturday night, as they climbed to the top of the table, albeit temporarily. Stefano Pioli’s side hosted Torino at the San Siro and two goals from Olivier Giroud, one from Christian Pulisic and another from Theo Hernandez were enough to secure the win.
The hosts needed just 33 minutes to open the scoring. New signing Pulisic continued his incredible start to life in the Milan shirt, combining with fellow ex-Chelsea player Ruben Loftus-Cheek. The Englishman was released through on goal before returning the favor for a simple touch from Pulisic.
However, Torino responded just three minutes later: Rade Krunic’s half-volley reached Samuele Ricci, whose volley was poorly struck, but Perr Schuurs was on hand to send the ball into the net and the game was level at 1-1. The Dutch defender scored his first goal in Serie A with an accurate finish.
Alessandro Buongiorno was guilty of handling the ball and Torino were unlucky to concede a penalty after a VAR review. Giroud deserved the penalty and converted just before the half-hour mark.
Rafael Leao played a beautiful pass for Theo Hernandez to reach the goal, but the Frenchman shot the ball over Vanja Milinković-Savić. Milan went into the break leading 3-1.
In another run by Leao, he found Tijjani Reijnders, but the Dutchman shot narrowly wide of the goal. Leao was fouled before releasing the ball, so the play was disallowed and another VAR review resulted in a second penalty for Pioli’s side.
Giroud repeated the trick, beating the Torino goalkeeper again to become the league’s top scorer with three goals in two games.
With two wins in two games, Milan have leapt to the top of the table, but the chasing pack will be in action on Sunday.