Serie A | Verona 0-3 Torino: Granata run riot at the Bentegodi
Torino ran riot away to Hellas Verona, as Giovanni Simeone pounced on an early error, then Cesare Casadei and Alieu Njie struck on the counter-attack.
Hellas had surged off rock bottom with victories over Atalanta and Fiorentina, but the 3-0 defeat to Milan at the end of 2025 brought them back down to earth. Rafik Belghali was at AFCON, with Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro and Tomas Suslov injured, but Martin Frese returned from his ban. Toro missed Ivan Ilic, Zanos Savva and Perr Schuurs, plus Cyril Ngonge and Niels Nkounkou suffering from flu, with Adam Masina on international duty, but Saul Coco was available again after early Equatorial Guinea elimination. Kristjan Asllani was benched amid reports he will be sent back to Inter early from his loan spell.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
Che Adams drilled a loose ball wide after just 10 seconds, and the goal wasn’t much later, as Adrian Bernede over-hit the back-pass for Victor Nelsson, allowing Simeone to go clear and beat the on-rushing Lorenzo Montipò with the inside of the right boot. He waved an apology to the fans of his former club.
Saul Coco prevented Giovane’s pull-back being tapped in by Frese, but Toro threatened again on the counter when Montipò flew to fingertip a Valentin Lazaro screamer over the bar.
Nobody got on the end of a dangerous Gvidas Gineitis ball rolled across the six-yard box, Aboukhlal was unable to surprise defenders with a stepover, and Unai Nunez charged down the Emirhan Ilkhan strike with his face.
Verona made a double change at the break and poured forward, but left themselves open to the counter with Simeone and Adams efforts blocked.
Both Frese and Daniel Mosquera threw themselves at the Giovane cross to the back post, but couldn’t get on the end of it.
Gift Orban saw his strike smothered from outside the box, while Nelsson made a decisive deflection to push the Tameze effort inches wide from 12 yards.
That was only a warning, as Torino did score their second late on. Valentino Lazaro started the move from near his own penalty area, Casadei combined with Njie down the left and was ready to sweep into the far bottom corner with the inside of the right boot from the edge of the area.
There was time for a third, as Njie this time ran onto the long Ardian Ismajli ball over the top and smashed a ferocious strike into the roof of the net.
Verona 0-3 Torino
Simeone 10 (T), Casadei 87 (T), Njie 91 (T)
Player statistic
| 10' | Giovanni Simeone |
| 56' | Alberto Paleari | |||
| 71' | Zakaria Aboukhlal | |||
| 87' | Cesare Casadei (Assist: Alieu Njie) | |||
| 90+1' | Alieu Njie (Assist: Ardian Ismajli) |