For a while, the Stadio Artemio Franchi believed. It believed because Mateo Pellegrino had lashed a left-footed shot into the bottom corner within two minutes of the restart, and because a home side rooted to the foot of Serie A finally looked like a team with something to cling to. Then Torino took it all away, coldly and clinically, and left Fiorentina staring at the bottom of the table with nothing to show for three matches.

The 2-1 defeat was the story of a lead squandered and a resolve found in the wrong dressing room. Rolando Mandragora hauled Torino level with 16 minutes remaining, and Ché Adams delivered the sucker punch eight minutes later. What had felt like a turning point for Fiorentina became another chapter of the same grim tale.

Torino arrived as the more settled side and departed as the more ruthless one. For a club still finding its feet in the early weeks of the campaign, this was the kind of away result that steadies a season. For Fiorentina, it was another wound, self-inflicted and slow to heal.

Pellegrino's flying start

The interval had barely passed when Fiorentina struck. A fast break carried them forward with genuine menace, Radu Dragusin threading the pass that released Pellegrino outside the box. The finish was emphatic, a left-footed strike bending into the bottom left corner and igniting a stadium starved of reasons to cheer.

It was exactly the sort of moment Fiorentina had been crying out for. Three matches in, a single goal to their name and nine conceded, they suddenly had a lead and a platform. For 27 minutes, the plan looked to be working, the tempo controlled, the danger largely kept at arm's length.

But leads are only as good as the closing out, and Fiorentina have not yet learned how to protect one. The early second-half surge gradually ebbed, the crowd's roar thinning into anxiety as Torino began to find their range and their belief. The warning signs were there long before the equaliser arrived.

Torino turn the tide

The leveller carried the fingerprints of a side that refused to accept its afternoon was done. Eray Cömert supplied the assist and Mandragora did the rest, a left-footed shot from outside the box arrowing into the top right corner. It was a goal of quality and timing, the kind that changes the temperature of a match in an instant.

Fiorentina visibly sagged. The certainty that had carried them through the opening exchanges after half-time drained away, and Torino smelled the vulnerability. The visitors pressed higher, moved the ball with more conviction, and sensed that a point would not be enough when three were there for the taking.

The winner came in the 82nd minute and was all about sharpness in the box. Rafik Belghali fashioned the opening and Adams pounced, a right-footed finish from very close range into the top left corner. The away bench erupted; the home end fell silent. In the space of eight minutes, Torino had flipped a deficit into a decisive advantage.

A table taking shape

The consequences are stark for Fiorentina. Bottom of Serie A, 20th on zero points, three defeats from three and a goal difference of minus eight, they are already scrambling for a foothold. One goal for and nine against tells the story of a defence too easily breached and an attack too rarely rewarded. Pellegrino's strike was a rare bright note in a bleak opening month.

For Torino, sitting 14th on three points, the picture is altogether healthier. One win, two defeats and four goals scored across three matches suggests a side still assembling its rhythm, but this result offers proof they can win ugly and win late. Away days like this are the ones that keep a season from drifting.

The gulf between the two clubs may only be a handful of places and points, but on this evidence the trajectories are pulling apart. Torino have the look of a team learning how to grind out results. Fiorentina, by contrast, keep finding new ways to lose them.

What comes next

Fiorentina must now confront the psychology of a start that has yielded nothing. The pattern is troubling: promising moments undone by lapses at the worst possible times, a lead surrendered here after being carved out with real quality. The talent to score is evidently there in Pellegrino and Dragusin; the discipline to defend a scoreline is not yet.

For the home support, the frustration will be sharpened by how close this felt to a first result of the campaign. Leading into the final quarter, they had the chance to lift a weight from their shoulders. Instead the weight grew heavier, and the questions about how this squad recovers its nerve will only intensify.

Torino, meanwhile, can travel home with the satisfaction of a job seen through against a wounded but dangerous opponent. Mandragora and Adams provided the moments; the collective provided the belief. If they can bottle the composure they showed in those closing minutes, their season has a shape worth building on.

The Franchi emptied slowly, its occupants weighing another defeat that need not have been. Fiorentina remain bottom, still searching for the win that would change everything. Torino, three points richer, march on.