Atalanta 1-5 Torino

Torino won their first away game of the season with a sensational 5-1 victory at Atalanta on Sunday afternoon.

After starting on the bench in midweek against Udinese, Rolando Bianchi came back into the starting eleven, as did winger Alessio Cerci who was also rested for that match.

The home side attacked from the outset, and it was very evident that this match would be an entertaining affair - a stark contrast to Torino's last two away games.

Atalanta came close to taking the lead when Luca Cigarini's free kick hit the crossbar, but just before the half hour mark they did open the scoring when Torino failed to clear a corner and when the ball was played back into the area, German Denis narrowly beat the offside trap to slide the ball past Jean-Francois Gillet.

That goal forced Torino to attack, and their equaliser was quite literally "handed" to them ten minutes later. The away side were awarded a penalty when Danilo D'Ambrosio's cross hit the arm of Giacomo Bonaventura, and captain Rolando Bianchi sent goalkeeper Andrea Consigli the wrong way with his spot kick to level things up.

On the stroke of half time, German Denis was fouled on the edge of the area, as once again the Toro defence struggled to cope with the powerful Argentinean striker. Denis picked himself up to take the resulting free kick, but once again the ball cannoned off the crossbar - perhaps early proof that Torino's luck was beginning to change, as the Granata had hit the woodwork on three occasions themselves in their previous match.

At the beginning of the second half, Toro had to rely on Jean Francois Gillet to keep the scores level, as the Belgian keeper first denied Federico Peluso, and then Bonaventura in quick succession. And those saves became even more important, as moments later the Granata took the lead, when Alessio Cerci's corner was headed in by an outstanding diving header from Alessandro Gazzi.

Just four minutes later Torino had a third goal and effectively ended the match as a contest, when Alessio Cerci delivered a perfect cross to find substitute Alen Stevanovic who scored with an exquisite left footed volley. The away side were still not satisfied, and scored a fourth goal when another Cerci corner found an unmarked Torino player - this time Danilo D'Ambrosio, who scored yet another headed goal to further his claim as the best full back in the world (maybe I'm exaggerating) at scoring with his head. 

Three minutes later Toro added a fifth goal, as Rolando Bianchi met Alen Stevanovic's through ball before blasting the ball past Andrea Consigli, who like many, must have been wondering what had happened to his defence. That goal was Bianchi's 70th in a Torino shirt, and he now enters the record books as Torino's tenth top scorer of all-time (tied with Ezio Loik) - an incredible achievement in the modern era.

The remaining fifteen minutes of the match was played at a slow tempo, with Torino more than happy with their margin of victory, and a shell-shocked Atalanta side still trying to comprehend what had happened. This was the first time Toro had scored five goals in a Serie A away game since May 1993, and was enough to move the Granata up to sixth place in the table.

Forza Torino