Video | Duván Zapata started with a goal in Torino, but his team could not hold on and ended up drawing against Milan, video

Striker Duván Zapata has not lost hope of returning to the Colombian national team and started the new season with his first goal for Torino. However, his team was unable to hold on to a two-goal lead and ended up drawing 2-2 against Milan in the first round of Serie A.

With a goal in the 89th minute, the Spaniard Álvaro Morata, substitute in his debut, revived Milan against Torino and led the comeback that the Swiss Noah Okafor materialized in added time against Torino.

But little or nothing seems to have changed in this Milan that, despite having left very good impressions in preseason, returned to being very flat, predictable and that did not take advantage of Inter’s slip-up in Genoa.

They were not even able to take advantage of the home advantage, in a packed San Siro, full of hope at the start of a new campaign.

Once again at the mercy of their rivals, forced to row against the tide. Fonseca opted for the Serbian Luka Jovic as a starting striker and the Belgian Alexis Saelemaekers as left back, leaving the Frenchman Theo Hernández and Morata as substitutes, relegated to the background until the 60th minute.

At that minute, Torino were already in the lead at the legendary San Siro with a somewhat strange goal, as the VAR had to intervene to validate a goal that the referee’s goal clock technology had wrongly signalled.

Half an hour into the game at San Siro, a header from Italian Raoul Bellanova hit the post and flew along the goal line until it fell to the feet of German Malick Thiaw, who tried to control the ball and put it completely into his own goal.

The Torino players appealed for a goal when they saw the play was clear, but the Milan centre-back’s clearance allowed the play to continue as referee Fabio Maresca’s watch did not signal the goal.

However, one of the new variations of the Italian championship’s regulations took this possibility into account and gave permission to the VAR to intervene ex officio and, without the need for the main referee to review the action on the monitor on the pitch, to validate or not the goal. Last season, this was not possible. After reviewing the images, it was clear that the goal was valid and, therefore, it was recorded on the scoreboard as an own goal by the Rossoneri centre-back.

Milan tried to react quickly and found their best allies for this mission in the Portuguese Rafael Leao and the American Christian Pulisic. Between them they created a great play that the Portuguese finished by running into a great stretch by the Serbian Vanja Milinkovic-Savic.

Theo and Morata came on to try and turn the game around and Milan changed radically. In their first intervention they fell inside the box and gave away a penalty which gave the fans in attendance hope.

However, the VAR intervened again so that the referee could review the play and decree a few seconds later that there was no contact to whistle the maximum penalty.

That seemed to be the end of the home team’s chances, as they seemed to be definitely out of the game after a goal from Zapata, who made his debut with the armband and who did not fail to score, taking advantage of a cross from the Austrian Valentino Lazaro to win from above and make it 0-2.

Milan returned to the attack in desperation and found their reward at the end of the match, just after Morata had a goal disallowed for blatant offside.

The Spaniard got his foot in on a shot from Dutchman Tijjani Reijnders and unleashed madness at San Siro, where Okafor reigned supreme, always ready to shine in the chaos, s
coring again a decisive goal as he was accustomed to last season. With the match tied in the 95th minute, Milan were unable to complete a complete comeback, but they left with a point they had not expected.

Duván Zapata’s numbers with Torino

Zapata is now entering his 12th season in Serie A. With Torino, where he joined a year ago on loan from Atalanta, he has scored 13 goals and provided four assists in 37 games and today, at 33 years of age, he is the team captain.

However, Zapata has never been called up by Néstor Lorenzo to the Colombian national team. The last of his 34 games with the yellow jersey was on November 16, 2021, against Paraguay, when the coach was Reinaldo Rueda.

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With Efe