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TURIN, ITALY – MAY 08: Giovanni Simeone of Torino FC and Josh Doig of US Sassuolo battle for possession during the Serie A match between Torino FC and US Sassuolo Calcio at Stadio Olimpico di Torino on May 08, 2026 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Francesco Scaccianoce/Getty Images)
Sassuolo claimed a second-half lead away against Torino in Serie A on Friday evening, but the hosts struck back with two goals within the space of four minutes to extend the team’s unbeaten home run to five matches: Kristjan Thorstvedt, Giovanni Simeone and Marcus Holmgren Pedersen with the goals.
Torino were coming in off the back of a 2-0 defeat against Udinese and decided to make two changes to their starting line-up on Friday evening. Despite beating Milan 2-0 last weekend, Fabio Grosso changed half of his outfielders, with the likes of Andrea Pinamonti, Cristian Volpato and Luca Lipani returning to the starting XI.
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Click here to read more about how tonight’s teams lined up.
Pinamonti registered the first shot on target less than two minutes in after being slipped into the area by Cristian Volpato. Pinamonti tried to find the far corner of the net, but Alberto Paleari was well positioned to make the save.
Gvidas Gineitis had to improvise for Torino’s first attempt on target 10 minutes in, but Arijanet Muric was able to get down to his left to prevent what turned out to be a relatively tame effort.
Alieu Njie came within inches of opening the scoring when his header bounced off the crossbar twice from Gineitis’s corner. Part of the ball had crossed the goalline, but importantly, not all of it.
Down at the other end, Lipani was allowed to dribble his way as far as the corner of the six-yard box, but he then found himself at a difficult angle, and Paleari had come out to narrow the angle.
The deadlock was finally broken five minutes after the re-start. Nemanja Matic’s shot from the edge of the area was blocked, but fell kindly into the path of Lipani, who managed to squeeze in a cross from the right byline and Thorstvedt was on hand to finish it off in the middle of the six-yard box.
It took a quarter of an hour for Torino to come up with a response. Ebosse whipped in a perfect deep cross from the left flank and Simeone pulled out a trademark centre-forward’s header, drilled into the floor and bouncing into the corner past Muric.
Simeone has now scored in each of his last five home matches in Serie A.
It turned out to be a quickfire turnaround for the Granata. Duvan Zapata clipped in a cross from the left-hand side of the penalty area, and Pedersen raced to meet it at the far post. This was the Norwegian’s first goal in Serie A, coming in his 84th appearance.
Tonight’s result means that Torino jump up one position in the Serie A table into 12th, while Sassuolo keep hold of 10th place.
Torino 2-1 Sassuolo
Thorstvedt (S) 51′, Simeone (T) 66′, Pedersen (T) 70′.
08-05-2026 19:45
MatchDay 36
Olympic Grande Torino StadiumTORSAS
Live0 – 0
Player statistic
| 38' | Luca Lipani |
TOR
SAS
Starting lineups
1
Alberto Paleari
Goalkeeper
77
Enzo Ebosse
Defender
35
Luca Marianucci
Defender
33
Rafa Obrador
Defender
23
Saúl Coco
Defender
20
Valentino Lazaro
Defender
66
Gvidas Gineitis
Midfielder
4
Matteo Prati
Midfielder
10
Nikola Vlasic
Midfielder
92
Alieu Njie
Attacker
18
Giovanni Simeone
Attacker
49
Arijanet Muric
Goalkeeper
3
Josh Doig
Defender
6
Sebastian Walukiewicz
Defender
80
Tarik Muharemovic
Defender
25
Woyo Coulibaly
Defender
7
Cristian Volpato
Midfielder
42
Kristian Thorstvedt
Midfielder
35
Luca Lipani
Midfielder
18
Nemanja Matic
Midfielder
99
Andrea Pinamonti
Attacker
45
Armand Lauriente
Attacker
Substitutes
34
Cristiano Biraghi
Defender
81
Franco Israel
Goalkeeper
61
Adrien Tameze
Midfielder
8
Ivan Ilić
Midfielder
17
Sandro Kulenovic
Attacker
13
Guillermo Maripán
Defender
19
Ché Adams
Attacker
16
Marcus Pedersen
Defender
6
Emirhan Ilkhan
Midfielder
22
Cesare Casadei
Midfielder
25
Niels Nkounkou
Defender
79
Zanos Savva
Attacker
84
Tommaso Gabellini
Attacker
99
Lapo Siviero
Goalkeeper
19
Filippo Romagna
Defender
12
Giacomo Satalino
Goalkeeper
10
Domenico Berardi
Attacker
16
Gioele Zacchi
Goalkeeper
8
M’Bala Nzola
Attacker
24
Luca Moro
Attacker
44
Edoardo Iannoni
Midfielder
23
Ulisses Garcia
Defender
40
Aster Vranckx
Midfielder
90
Ismaël Koné
Midfielder
50
Darryl Bakola
Midfielder
66
Pedro Felipe
Defender
33
Christian Frangella
Midfielder
ByPeter Young
Peter Young is a Senior Reporter with Football Italia.
