Torino beat Milan to hand leaders Napoli title advantage

AC Milans midfielder Belgian Charles De Ketelaere and AC Milans Italian defender Matteo Gabbia react at the end of the Italian Serie A football match between Torino and AC Milan at the Grande Torino Stadium in Turin on October 30, 2022. – Torino won 2-1. (Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP)

Torino pulled off a shock 2-1 win over AC Milan on Sunday which extended Napoli’s Serie A lead to five points in their bid for a first league title in over three decades.

Reigning champions Milan were on a run of four straight league wins but defeat dropped them down to third, six points behind Napoli, after Koffi Djidji and Aleksei Miranchuk netted twice in two first-half minutes to claim the win for Torino.

Stefano Pioli’s side have been overtaken by Atalanta, who are one point ahead of Milan thanks to their 2-0 win at Empoli in Sunday’s early match.

But the weekend’s big winners are Napoli, who kicked off the action on Saturday with another avalanche of goals and look increasingly like a team that could bring the title to Naples for the first time since 1990.

“We weren’t sharp, didn’t bring any real quality, and we weren’t at it during the moments that changed the game. We were poor in both our and the opposition’s areas,” Pioli told DAZN.

Torino had scored just twice at home before this weekend but are up to ninth following their fifth win of the season, a match which nearly boiled completely over after Junior Messias pulled a goal back for the away side midway through the second half.

A dreadful mix-up between goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic and Alessandro Buongiorno — plus what looked like a clear push from Messias — allowed Milan’s Brazilian to clip in his second goal of the season.

Torino coach Ivan Juric was sent off for his furious