Abate's bench change decides it as Torino sink error-prone Udinese
Sandro Kulenovic punished a defensive mistake three minutes after coming off the bench, giving Torino a 2-1 win that overshadowed David Alaba's long-awaited debut.
Torino beat Udinese 2-1 at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, with substitute Sandro Kulenovic scoring the winner after capitalising on a defensive error, according to Football Italia.
Both clubs arrived at the final fixture of Round 6 level on four points, each searching for form after mixed starts to the campaign. Udinese had won only once in five matches and were fresh off a defeat to Cagliari, while Torino were looking to build on home advantage after Rolando Mandragora returned from an international break in which he didn't feature for Italy.
Udinese coach Kosta Runjaic held David Alaba back on the bench rather than risk him from the start, three months on from his last competitive appearance. That caution shaped the opening exchanges: Udinese looked the sharper side early on, with Oumar Solet heading narrowly wide from a corner inside the first few minutes.
Bragança's rebound breaks the deadlock
Torino's opener on 36 minutes came from persistence rather than design. Che Adams struck the post with a first-time effort, and Daniel Bragança was alert enough to convert the loose ball. It was a reminder that Torino's attacking threat has often depended on bodies arriving in the right areas rather than a single creator carving out chances.
Udinese responded before half-time through Jurgen Ekkelenkamp, who controlled a blocked shot and drilled it low into the bottom corner. The goal stood after a VAR check, Football Italia reported. The speed of the reply suggested Udinese's travel problems this season have not been about creating opportunities so much as converting moments of pressure into control of matches.
Abate's changes tip the balance
The game turned in the second half through a sequence of substitutions from Torino coach Ignazio Abate. He brought on Ardian Ismajli for Ricardo Rodriguez at the interval, then introduced Nikola Vlasic and Emirhan Ilkhan as the half wore on. Those changes altered the tempo of Torino's play just as Udinese were forced into an enforced switch of their own, losing James Abankwah to injury.
Chances followed at both ends. Pietro Comuzzo headed wide from a promising position for Torino, while Unai Gomez went close for Udinese. Neither side could find the breakthrough through open play, which made the manner of the winning goal all the more significant.
Kulenovic had been on the pitch for only three minutes, having replaced Adams, when a mistake at the back gifted him a clear sight of goal. Football Italia described it as a catastrophic defensive error from Udinese, and Kulenovic rolled the ball home from close range to make it 2-1. The timing underlines the value of Abate's bench management: a fresh forward reading a mistake that a tiring defence could not recover from.
Alaba's debut ends in frustration
Alaba finally got his first minutes for the Friulians when he was introduced 20 minutes from time, closing out a long wait since his last competitive football. His arrival did little to change the pattern of the closing stages, with Udinese unable to force an equaliser.
Maduka Okoye did produce a smart save to deny Ilkhan, but the goalkeeper's earlier error had already proven decisive. Ilkhan himself did not finish the match, forced off injured shortly after his save-worthy effort, having only been introduced in the second half. For Udinese, the combination of an individual mistake at a crucial moment and a second injury blow compounded a performance that had otherwise shown enough control to suggest they were not out of the contest.
The result leaves Torino with the points from a game that swung on fine margins either side of half-time and in a three-minute window after the hour. For Udinese, the defeat extends a difficult sequence that now reads one win in six, with questions remaining over defensive reliability even as players like Ekkelenkamp continue to offer a route back into matches. Runjaic will now have to decide how quickly to build Alaba into his side after a debut that arrived too late to influence the outcome in Turin.