Another defeat: Torino-Siena 1-2

di Andrea Rosselli

Another defeat for Torino. Three days after the Udine setback, our guys suffered a 1-2 home loss against Siena in the third round of the Serie A and now sit in the bottom part of the table, just above three of the penalized teams (the fourth one, Milan, reached the Granata despite starting from -8).

There were two different Torino on the pitch tonight. From the starting whistle to the 40th minute the Granata were totally outplayed by Siena, who were clearly better both on the physical and on the tactical side. Zaccheroni's men made an impressive number of mistakes (including the second straight one by Abbiati, who literally gave Siena the second goal) and even lacked an acceptable level of determination, while the guests showed a very aggressive style of play and a superb organization, and their 2-0 lead was definitely deserved.

Unable to create a single scoring chance in the first half, Torino became a completely different team when Roberto Muzzi netted the 1-2 goal in the 40th minute: the final 5 minutes and the whole second half turned into a endless siege to Manninger's net, with our guys finally showing the big heart we all expect from them, but despite a number of good opportunities the result didn't change.

Zaccheroni was expected to confirm the 4-2-3-1 formation, with Stellone replacing Abbruscato: instead, the former Milan coach surprisingly fielded a 4-4-2 with Konan on the left and Muzzi pairing up Stellone upfront, while Rosina started on the bench.

The start of the game was a nightmare for the Granata. Siena dominated from the first minute with their aggressiveness, and after only 4 minutes a cross from the left by Molinaro was easily netted by Frick with a shot-range shot. An awful defensive display by our guys.

Toro's reaction was pretty weak, then in the 22nd minute the usual bad luck forced Stellone to leave the pitch with a knee injury: the Roman striker was replaced by Rosina. Siena controlled the pace of the game without any problem, and even managed to score the second goal courtesy of another horrible mistake by Abbiati, who was unable to hold a totally innocuous low ball coming from the left, let it slip away like a soap and allowed Frick to make it 2-0 for Siena.

Four minutes later, Muzzi netted the 1-2 with the first real shot at goal of the match for Torino: it was a beautiful curling right-footer from the left edge of the box and a deserved reward for the veteran striker, who gave eveything he could tonight.

In the second half there was only one team on the pitch, but a huge determination wasn't enough to level the score. Siena rarely managed to hold the ball and cross the midfield line, while Toro's assaults were endless but also very confused: anyway the Granata created at least five very good scoring chances, but a couple of great saves by Manninger on Fiore and Barone prevented Zaccheroni's men from collecting a deserved draw.

On Sunday the Granata will travel to Reggio Calabria, and hopefully they'll finally manage to show the right concentration from the beginning of the match, which is what we missed in the first three rounds.