Marcus Thuram nets hat-trick as Inter Milan edge past Torino

Marcus Thuram scored his first Serie A hat-trick as Inter Milan made hard work of beating 10-man Torino 3-2 at San Siro.

Thuram took his goals tally for the season to seven as Inter moved within two points of leaders Napoli, and he was also involved in the incident that saw Torino’s Guillermo Maripan sent off after 20 minutes with the score 0-0.

Maripan went right through the back of Thuram, making contact above the ankle, and was booked by referee Matteo Marcenaro.

The colour of the card changed from yellow to red when Marcenaro was invited to the VAR monitor for a second look at a challenge that was both unnecessary and foolish.

Torino appeared doomed from that moment but Duvan Zapata – who was later carried off on on a stretcher – and Nikola Vlasic guaranteed that Inter remained anxious until the final whistle.

Inter made seven changes from the side that overwhelmed Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Lautaro Martinez, a scoring substitute in that 4-0 stroll, and Thuram were reunited in attack on a night when both teams started with 11 points from six games.

Torino set their stall out to be compact in defence, content to concede possession but capitalise on the counter when opportunities arose.

The plan worked well until Maripan’s departure with Valentino Lazaro having a sniff at the far post and Yann Sommer pushing out Samuele Ricci’s excellent hit from distance.

Thuram put Inter ahead from Alessandro Bastoni’s cross, his thumping header going in off a post to end a run of four games without a goal for the France forward.

Che Adams was sacrificed after 32 minutes as Torino manager Paolo Vanoli reinforced his defence with the Moroccan Adam Masina, but it made little difference.

Inter worked another overload for Francesco Acerbi and Thuram, this time moving away from goal, gave Vanja Milinkovic-Savic no chance with another impressive header.

Torino had every right to feel sorry for themselves but Inter were caught cold just 63 seconds later.

Ricci released Zapata and the Colombian shrugged off Matteo Darmian to rifle home into the roof of the net.

Federico Dimarco forced Milinkovic-Savic into an excellent save low to his left, Martinez twice went close and Hakan Calhanoglu’s swerving 25-yarder just cleared the Torino crossbar.

Thuram ensured the match ball would go home with him on the hour after Bastoni again escaped down the left.

Milinkovic-Savic pushed Martinez’s header straight to Thuram, who struck the ball into the ground and over the luckless Serbian.

Torino lost Zapata to what appeared a nasty knee injury but raised hopes of an improbable point four minutes from time after Calhanoglu felled Masina and Vlasic converted from the spot.

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