Dany Mota Punishes Torino as Monza Snatches Coppa Italia Win With Second-Half Strike

Torino created more chances, held more of the ball and still walked away with nothing to celebrate at the Olimpico Grande Torino. Monza took all three points with a single blow: Dany Mota finished early in the second half, and that was the only difference in a 1-0 result that leaves the home side feeling it did more than enough to earn something else.

The match, part of the Coppa Italia, opened with Torino pushing forward from the first minute: Gaetano Oristanio rattled the left post almost straight from kickoff, and Giovanni Simeone tested the keeper soon after. Monza weathered the early storm without losing its composure and answered with chances of its own, including a header from Yvan Maye that Lucas Perri saved low. The first half moved between corner kicks (four in a row for Torino in the opening minutes) and fouls at both ends, with Dany Mota giving a warning in the 41st minute when his header struck the crossbar.

VAR also played a part: in the 36th minute, a possible penalty for Monza was reviewed and ultimately waved off. The score was still level when the referee added four minutes to the first half, and it was there that Monza produced its clearest chance before the break, a shot from Omari Forson that Perri managed to deflect away.

The goal that decided it all

The breakthrough came moments after the restart. In the 47th minute, with play barely back underway, Dany Mota struck a right-footed shot from the center of the box that slipped in low, just inside the left post, making it 1-0. Torino responded right away through Simeone and Pietro Comuzzo, both without luck, but the goal was already on the board and it stayed there.

Torino turned to its bench in search of an equalizer, bringing on Nikola Vlasic, Duván Zapata, Tino Anjorin, Zakaria Aboukhlal and Ché Adams, but still could not find a way past the Monza goal. The visitors, with Patrick Cutrone and Andrea Colpani already on the field, also had chances to extend the lead: Jay Robinson hit the right post in the 72nd minute, and Cutrone twice tested the box in stoppage time. Late on, another VAR review in the 93rd minute ruled out a penalty for Torino that could have changed the story.

By the numbers

Torino held more of the ball and completed more passes, but it was Monza that showed up more often near the opposing goal, with 19 shots to the home side's 16. Our estimate of xG generated in the match, calculated from shot location, gives Monza 2.275 against Torino's 1.536, a reading that backs up what the eye test showed: a visiting side that was sharper in the moments that mattered.

The result also runs counter to what our model had projected before kickoff. It gave Torino a 46% chance of winning, against 26% for Monza and 28% for a draw, with expected goals of 1.58 for the home side and 1.15 for the visitors. The pitch told a different story: the favorite on paper went scoreless, and the visitor made its one clean strike count.

For Torino, this leaves the feeling of a match dominated in volume but not in finishing, undone by a rival that won the key moment of the game. For Monza, a win built on Dany Mota's efficiency and on a defense that, even while ceding ground for long stretches, never quite came undone.