Serie A | Sassuolo 0-1 Torino: In-form Vlasic punishes Doig shocker

The in-form Nikola Vlasic netted in his third consecutive Serie A match to hand Torino all three points in an important 1-0 victory away against Sassuolo on Sunday afternoon.

Sassuolo came in off the back of a 2-2 draw away against Milan last time out. Fabio Grosso made three alterations to that team, with Josh Doig, Aster Vranckx and Armand Lauriente coming back into the side. Marco Baroni made just the one change after last weekend’s 1-0 win over Cremonese, with Adrien Tameze coming in to replace Saul Coco in the back three. 

Torino came close to claiming a first-half lead after Arijanet Muric spilled Vlasic’s shot from the edge of the area. Che Adams fired off target on the rebound, but drew a foul in the area from international colleague Doig in the process. 

A penalty was originally awarded, but a VAR check deemed that Torino’s Tameze had fouled Namanja Matic in the process, and the decision was overturned. 

Doig was let off once more in the first half when he lost out to Marcus Holmgren Pedersen on the edge of the area. Pedersen provided a great cross for Duvan Zapata at the far post, but the Colombian flashed over the bar with his first-time effort. 

It turned out to be an afternoon to forget for Doig, who gave away another penalty by bringing down Giovanni Simeone with a clumsy challenge in the corner of the area.

There was no VAR let-off for the Scotsman on this occasion, as Vlasic stepped up to dispatch the spot-kick into the bottom left corner of the net. 

The Croatian has now scored in three consecutive matches and has six goal involvements from his last five outings in Serie A.

Today’s result brings Torino up to 12th place in the Serie A table. They are one point behind Sassuolo, who remain in ninth place on 21. Both sides could still be overtaken by Atalanta should they beat Genoa away from home later on Sunday evening.

21-12-2025 14:00

MatchDay 16

Mapei Stadium – Città del Tricolore

SAS

TOR

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SAS

TOR

Starting lineups

49

Arijanet Muric
Goalkeeper

21

Jay Idzes
Defender

3

Josh Doig
Defender

6

Sebastian Walukiewicz
Defender

80

Tarik Muharemovic
Defender

40

Aster Vranckx
Midfielder

7

Cristian Volpato
Midfielder

90

Ismaël Koné
Midfielder

18

Nemanja Matic
Midfielder

45

Armand Lauriente
Attacker

9

Walid Cheddira
Attacker

1

Alberto Paleari
Goalkeeper

44

Ardian Ismajli
Defender

13

Guillermo Maripán
Defender

16

Marcus Pedersen
Defender

20

Valentino Lazaro
Defender

61

Adrien Tameze
Midfielder

66

Gvidas Gineitis
Midfielder

32

Kristjan Asllani
Midfielder

10

Nikola Vlasic
Midfielder

19

Ché Adams
Attacker

91

Duván Zapata
Attacker

Substitutes

12

Giacomo Satalino
Goalkeeper

16

Gioele Zacchi
Goalkeeper

13

Stefano Turati
Goalkeeper

24

Luca Moro
Attacker

44

Edoardo Iannoni
Midfielder

77

Nicholas Pierini
Attacker

5

Fali Candé
Defender

26

Cas Odenthal
Defender

35

Luca Lipani
Midfielder

20

Alieu Fadera
Midfielder

34

Cristiano Biraghi
Defender

81

Franco Israel
Goalkeeper

18

Giovanni Simeone
Attacker

8

Ivan Ilić
Midfielder

14

Tino Anjorin
Midfielder

7

Zakaria Aboukhlal
Midfielder

6

Emirhan Ilkhan
Midfielder

22

Cesare Casadei
Midfielder

21

Ali Dembélé
Defender

26

Cyril Ngonge
Attacker

15

Saba Sazonov
Defender

71

Mihai Popa
Goalkeeper

25

Niels Nkounkou
Defender

92

Alieu Njie
Attacker