It was a case of unlucky number thirteen for Torino, as after not suffering defeat in their last twelve Serie A fixtures, the Granata fell to a 3-2 to Udinese on Sunday afternoon.
With Thursday's Europa League tie with Zenit St Petersburg in mind, Giampiero Ventura chose to leave Matteo Darmian, Marco Benassi and Omar El Kaddouri on the bench.
Toro made an excellent start, and were ahead after just a quarter of an hour when Alexander Farnerud's inch-perfect cross found former Udinese man Fabio Quagliarella who headed home.
However, the lead was a short lived one, as just two minutes later Antonio Di Natale's shot on the turn found the bottom corner. Daniele Padelli then produced a miraculous save to deny French defender Molla Wagué. But from the resulting corner, Di Natale's corner was flicked in by Panagiotis Kone to give Udinese the lead.
Maxi Lopez twice had opportunities to bring Toro level, whilst Fabio Quagliarella was inches away from adding another wonder goal to his highlight reel, but his volley from an acute angle hit the post.
Less than five minutes into the second half, some uncharacteristically poor defending from a set piece allowed Wagué a free header, and on this occasion the Frenchman made no mistake to extend the home side's lead.
The Granata reduced the deficit with twenty minutes remaining thanks to substitute Marco Benassi's deflected effort from the edge of the area. Toro dominated the latter stages of the game, but were unable to find an equaliser, despite Amauri and Cristian Molinaro going close.
This was Toro's first defeat in the league since losing the derby in heartbreaking fashion back in November, and they will have to bounce back quickly ahead of their Europa League tie with Zenit on Thursday.
Forza Toro
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