AC Milan produced a dramatic comeback away from home against Torino on Monday night, coming from two goals down to win 3-2.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) recall this morning, Milan found themselves in a very difficult position at 2-0 down after 17 minutes. However, Adrien Rabiot’s long-range effort quickly inspired hope, and then Christian Pulisic’s introduction off the bench proved to be decisive.
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Beauty and mistakes
Every match is made up of good and bad moments, but what Torino lacks – suffering their third consecutive defeat – is a balance between these factors. Yet they had proven ruthless against the league leaders, beating Roma and Napoli when they were at the top.
On this consistently electric evening, they thrilled with their initial run, failing to slow the Rossoneri’s advance after Rabiot closed the gap almost immediately. When Milan pressed in the second half, their quality emerged.
For the third goal, however, the Granata were down to ten men and made some blunders, as Tameze was out injured and Torino failed to stop the game for a substitution. Baroni can take solace in Zapata’s return to scoring form, with a first half that fully matched the league-leaders.
The home side made a good start to the game, driving forward mostly through Pederson on the right. They got a penalty after a handball from Fikayo Tomori that was a strange one, and Nikola Vlasic converted from the spot past Mike Maignan.
Torino then retreated, but they launched a lethal counter in the 17th minute, which Duvan Zapata finished. The Colombian hadn’t scored since 5 October 2024, when he was stretchered off crying with a shattered knee.
The anger of 14 months of suffering flashes through his mind like a horror movie, and he transforms it into power, firing a diagonal shot past Strahinja Pavlovic and Maignan, who got a hand to it but it wasn’t enough to keep it out.
The comeback begins
Torino were two goals up after just over 15 minutes, and their problem became managing the remaining time. It started badly, because the freedom granted to Adrien Rabiot was punished by a shot from over 25 yards that found the top corner.
Massimiliano Allegri did not have time to celebrate in the stands before Rafael Leao put his hands on his adductor and asked to be substituted. Milan were already without Pulisic and Santiago Gimenez. Christopher Nkunku and Ruben Loftus-Cheek went up front, with Samuele Ricci coming on in midfield.
The second half began with Pulisic warming up intently. When he came on for Davide Bartesaghi, the American scored with his first touch, via a cross from Alexis Saelemaekers who had switched to the opposite flank.
The change of position stunned Torino, who attempted to react, finding the back of the net with Adams, but the referee had earlier blown a whistle for a push from Pedersen on Saelemaekers. Asllani also tried, but Torino went 3-2 down from the spot where Tameze should have been.
Torino concede too many goals, still having the worst defence in the league. Milan regained the top spot without any shortage of difficulties. Leao is out, but Pulisic returned: Allegri will continue to jostle with Napoli and Inter.
Good win after another rather poor start; great composure and fighting spirit after falling with two goals behind (Rabiot is already a great addition if he also starts scoring then, wow!)
I’d like though to stay a bit on Tomori. I somewhat disagree, the penalty wasn’t a ‘strange’ one; the ball should have been cleared when still in the air, that was a big mistake. Tomori nowadays tends to be a liability… since he arrived I was hoping that he ‘d be able to blend all of his amazing physical skills with the superior Italian defensive tactics, but sadly nothing so far (and he had enough time…). Gabbia on the contrary he is taking huge steps forward towards becoming a solid defender!
Would you say Kalulu would have been better option for this season than Tomori?
That is 100% nonsense. You guys better watch our matches with a bit of tactical sence and not just 22 grown men chasing one ball.
Without tomori and pavlovic in our defense, Gabbia will be less than an average player…
What? Yes, if he plays alone he will be, if you add other players he obviously wouldn’t. He makes by far least mistakes out of the 3. What you wrote is literal nonsense.
i dont know what you guys are talking about, players make errors, so i believe the penalty was just unfortunate, Tomori has had a resurgence this season which is a far cry from the defender even average attackers get the better of last season. Tomori, Gabbia and Pavlovic have been great so far this season, with more matches under their belt, i beleive they will improve more.
Imagine if Fofana could shoot like Rabiot. He’d become a phenomenon.
Now he’s phenomnenally bad at shooting instead.
hahahahaha Fofana frustrates the hell out of me. Everything you need to know about Fofana is on that play a few games ago where he was defending, tackle the guy nicely, took the ball, move forward quickly, dribble pass 2 or 3 guys, got ready to shoot a missle and…. didnt even hit the freaking ball. ughhh
All this crying about Tomori.
He was pushed by Che Adams and stretched out his arm to keep his balance. It was unfortunate that the ball bounced down at that moment onto his outstretched arm.
Had he fallen on the ground, Che Adams would have had an open shot on goal.
He’s been our best defender this season, only SempreMilan and their Gabbia (Italy) bias agenda are blind to it.
He even made up for it with the assist to Rabiot, and several great blocks in the same match.
These goldfish views are exactly why Milan fans can’t have nice things.