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Ola Aina scores as Torino condemn Udinese to first home defeat
By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde
Nigeria defender Ola Aina scored his first goal of the season for Italian Serie A side, Torino as his team pipped Udinese 2-1 at the Dacia Arena, Udine on Sunday.
On the back of over 500km journey to Udine, one would be forgiven for expecting a slow start for Torino.
The visitors did exactly the opposite as they flew out of the traps and took the lead inside the opening 15 minutes.
Nikola Vlasic put in most of the leg work, cutting the ball back to Aleksi Miranchuk, who retained his composure to slide the ball sideways for Ola Aina to sweep home the opener.
Torino’s lead didn’t last too long, as the visitors were the masters of their downfall.
David Zima inexplicably played a blind square pass which was intercepted by Destiny Udogie, who unselfishly squared for Gerard Deulofeu to level the scores.
After the equaliser, it was pretty much one-way traffic, with Udinese beginning to flex their muscles. Somewhat against the run of play, it was Torino who nosed themselves ahead for the second time.
Nemanja Radonjic was the creator this time, touching the ball on for Pietro Pellegri, who shrugged off a defender and rifled home past Marco Silvestri at his near post.
From then on, it would be fair to say Torino were relatively untroubled in seeing out the victory, as they became the first team to inflict a home league defeat on Udinese this season.
Aina played the full 90 minutes for Torino and received a yellow card in the 68th minute for his troubles after scoring his first goal of the season.
Another Nigerian player, Isaac Success saw 65 minutes of action for Udinese and also received a yellow card in the 32nd minute.
Sixth-placed Udinese will next face Cremonese in the league on October 30 while Torino in the ninth position on the log square up with league holders, AC Milan on the same day.
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