Torino 3-2 Monza: Belghali and Vlasic seal a first three-win run since 2019

Torino beat Monza 3-2 on Friday night in the first match of Serie A's eighth matchday. Kian Fitz-Jim, Rafik Belghali and Nikola Vlašić scored for Ignazio Abate's side, who have won three league games in a row for the first time since 2019, according to Italpress. Monza's Gustavo Varela equalised early in the second half, and a Nathan Patterson own goal in the 94th minute came too late for Ivan Jurić's team.

Mistakes, then a curler

The opener came from a Monza error. In the 39th minute Manga Foe Ondoa lost the ball in his own half to Giovanni Simeone, who set up Fitz-Jim to beat goalkeeper Noel Törnqvist with his left foot. It was the young Dutchman's first Serie A goal, MBNews reported. Before half-time Monza claimed a penalty for a challenge by Belghali on Ricardo Mangas; the referee, Andrea Zanotti, gave nothing and VAR did not intervene. Torino gifted the equaliser back two minutes after the restart: a slow back pass from Pietro Comuzzo let Varela in, and the Portuguese striker lifted the ball over Lucas Perri. Abate then lost Rolando Mandragora to injury in the 51st minute. In the 61st minute Belghali came in from the left and curled a right-footed shot in from around 20 metres. Perri dived to keep out a Mangas header, and in the 72nd minute Vlašić took the ball in the box, went past Andrea Carboni and finished with his left foot for 3-1. Deep into stoppage time Cyril Ngonge's cross went in off Patterson.

What it changes

Torino had 17 shots to Monza's seven, seven of them on target. The win lifts them to 13 points from eight games, level with Frosinone and Cagliari, who have a game in hand, and two points clear of Juventus, who play at Lecce on Sunday. Monza, who had beaten Cagliari in their previous league game and knocked Torino out of the Coppa Italia in September, are 14th on seven points after their fifth league defeat. Varela's goal was his seventh in the league, level with Frosinone's Raimondo at the top of the scorers' list, MBNews noted.

What they said

"We haven't done anything yet, it's only the eighth matchday," Abate told Sky Sport. "What I liked most was the reaction after conceding, even if we let in two avoidable goals." Vlašić, back on the scoresheet, said: "This is my fifth year here. It's the first time we have won three games in a row." He admitted he had not felt right "in the first four or five games". Jurić accepted the result but not the first-half decision: "Torino deserved the win. We conceded in our best moment," the Monza coach said, adding that it was "a clear penalty" on Mangas while praising the referees' general approach this season.

Torino host Como on Tuesday.