Il Toro were quick out of the traps, with early chances falling to Ola Aina, Valentino Lazaro, and Nikola Vlasic, but the hosts had the wind taken out of their sails when Antonio Sanabria was shown a straight red card for a challenge on Nicolo Cambiaghi. Common sense eventually prevailed though, and following intervention from the VAR, referee Francesco Fourneau downgraded the red to a yellow after watching a replay on the pitchside monitor.
The Empoli goal was living a charmed life, as Guglielmo Vicario made a fine save to keep out a Vlasic’s effort, before the Croatian saw his diving header cannon off the post from Aina’s delivery. It looked like Aleksei Miranchuk had provided the inevitable breakthrough, but his goal was disallowed after the VAR spotted an offside in the build-up.
Sanabria also had the ball in the back of the net for Torino, but was again chalked off for offside. It was a disappointing first-half display from Paolo Zanetti’s side, who failed to register a shot on target before half-time.
Despite all of Torino’s first-half dominance, it was Gli Azzurri who broke the deadlock in outstanding fashion just four minutes after the restart. Half-time substitute Mattia Destro fired home an incredible overhead bicycle kick from Tyronne Ebuehi’s cross to score his first Empoli goal and end a personal goal drought going back 17 games across all competitions.
Destro had the ball in the back of the net again moments later, but it became the third goal of the match to be ruled out for offside. Destro’s opener seemed to knock the stuffing out of the hosts, but Vlasic had another golden opportunity to get on the scoresheet, only to direct a header straight at Vicario from deep inside the box.
But the Granata got a huge slice of luck which their performance deserved, as Vicario palmed Yann Karamoh’s cross onto Lukic, and the ball ricocheted off the Serbian to give the hosts a point.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Guglielmo Vicario (Empoli)
