Hart drops clanger, endures miserable Torino debut

Joe Williams

Joe Hart had a debut to forget as Torino were beaten 2-1 by Atalanta in Serie A.

Torino had just gone ahead when the England goalkeeper, who moved to Italy on transfer deadline day after losing his place at Manchester City, gifted Andrea Masiello an equaliser when he made a mess of a punch from a corner.

Hart was beaten again eight minutes from full-time as Franck Kessie beat him from the penalty spot.

His day started inauspiciously after the Torino team sheet named him as John Hart, although that may have been because his full name is Charles Joseph John Hart.

Nevertheless, things did not get much better on the pitch and Hart had a couple of nervous moments in the first half, needing a combination of good fortune and poor finishing to ensure a clean sheet by half-time.

Having had nothing to do for the first 20 minutes, Hart’s first contribution was to dive down to get a hand to a low drilled cross from Kessie.

The ball fell at the feet of Abdoulay Konko, whose follow-up shot beat Hart but hit his Atalanta team-mate Mauricio Pinilla, who inadvertently deflected it wide.

And shortly before half-time Alejandro Gomez’s cross looped over Hart only for Kessie, arriving at the far post, to volley into the ground and up over the crossbar.

Torino went ahead in the 54th minute when Iago Falque’s free-kick sailed past the seemingly unsighted Atalanta goalkeeper Marco Sportiello.

But barely a minute later Hart came off his line to clear a corner only to misjudge the flight of the ball, overstretch and leave Masiello with a tap-in from six yards.

Hart had the chance to make amends after Lorenzo De Silvestri fouled Gomez in the box, but Kessie sent him the wrong way from the spot.