The home side made just the one change from the team that thrashed Atalanta in their last outing, as Alen Stevanovic replaced Mario Santana in midfield.
Captain Rolando Bianchi had Torino's first half chance of the match, as he attempted an ambitious header from Matteo Darmian's cross, but Cagliari keeper Michael Agazzi stopped it with ease.
At the other end, Cagliari, who were keen to impress new management team Ivo Pulga and Diego Lopez, came close to opening the scoring, but Toro were thankful that Jean Francois Gillet was able to tip Fernando Avelar's shot over the bar.
The second half began with Cagliari continuing to look threatening and Radja Nainggolan cleverly evaded Angelo Ogbonna, before drilling his shot wide of Gillet's goal. And with fifteen minutes remaining, the away side were given the opportunity to take the lead after Kamil Glik was harshly adjudged to have handled Davide Astori's volley inside the area, and striker Nenê smashed home the resulting penalty.
The Isolani then came close to doubling their lead, as Victor Ibarbo was put through on goal - but the Colombian striker was denied by the post. That chance seemed to give Torino the wake up call they needed, and when Rolando Bianchi headed home a Giuseppe Vives free kick, it seemed as though the home side had rescued a point - but the goal was disallowed because of a marginal offside.
In the closing stages, substitute Gianluca Sansone delivered a teasing cross that found captain Rolando Bianchi once again, but his improvised shot at goal went just wide of the post, and Cagliari held on for their first win of the season.
Whilst this was undoubtedly a disappointing result, no Granata fan can be that surprised that they followed up an impressive 5-1 away victory with a home defeat against a team who were bottom of the league - because that's just what Toro do.
Forza Torino
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