Torino fell to a third consecutive defeat as Monza won 0-1 at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, the margin supplied entirely by a single goal in first-half stoppage time — scored before Ignazio Abate's side had the chance to reshape the game with their substitutions.
The decisive moment arrived in the 45th minute, three minutes into added time. Monza's Dany Mota converted what became the winner with the teams still level and Torino yet to make a change. The timing was brutal in its precision: a goal at the very edge of the half denies the trailing team any immediate tactical response, and Abate's five second-half substitutions — Nikola Vlašić and Duván Zapata introduced at 56 minutes, Faustino Anjorin and Zakaria Aboukhlal at 64, Che Adams at 79 — were always chasing a deficit rather than protecting a lead. Torino finished the evening without a goal to show for those five changes.
Mota was the author of the result. The Monza forward struck in the moments when the match was most open to influence — the psychological hinge between halves — and Ivan Jurić's side managed the second period with enough composure to see the lead home. Mota was withdrawn at 70 minutes, replaced by Patrick Cutrone, his work already done.
Torino's evening was complicated before the goal arrived. Sandro Kulenović collected a yellow card at 38 minutes, and the caution carried a secondary consequence: Kulenović was among the players substituted off at 56 minutes, alongside Gaetano Oristanio. Whether the bookings influenced Abate's hand or the changes were already planned, the effect was a significant reshaping of the side at the interval — five different players on the pitch by the 79th minute. That degree of rotation suggests Abate saw enough in the first half to want a different answer, but the answer never came. Torino created nothing the data records.
The form context makes this result harder to absorb. Torino have now lost all three of their most recent matches, conceding five goals and scoring two across that run. The single win in their last four came against Carrarese in the Coppa Italia's opening round; since then, defeats to AC Milan and Sassuolo in Serie A have been followed by this. Monza arrive with their own complications — back-to-back Serie A losses to Inter and Udinese preceded this fixture — but Jurić's team have shown the capacity to perform in cup competition, having beaten Avellino 3-0 in their own Coppa Italia opener. Tuesday night extended that pattern.
For Monza, the win offers a foothold in the competition and a reminder that their recent form does not define what they are capable of in a different context. Jurić managed his squad carefully: five substitutions rotated Andrea Colpani, Patrick Cutrone, Samuele Birindelli, Jan Ziółkowski, and Idrissa Touré into the match, preserving legs without surrendering control.
Dany Mota's goal in first-half stoppage time was the only moment that mattered, and Torino — three defeats in a row and still searching for a coherent identity under Abate — had no answer for it.