Young striker Andrea Belotti continued his rich vein of form as he inspired Torino with a second-half brace to register a come-from-behind 2-2 draw against Fiorentina in a Serie A football league match here.
The 23-year-old Italian international on Monday struck in the 65th and 85th minutes after hitting a penalty to the bar in the 61st minute as Torino rescued a point at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.
Belotti, with 19 goals, is now Serie A 2016-17's joint top-scorer as he shares the spot with Edin Dzeko of Roma and Gonzalo Higuain of Juventus.
Fiorentina, who were coming into the match after a horrific show in the Europa League Round-of-32 loss to Burussia Monchengladbach, once again wasted a brilliant start.
Riccardo Saponara's right foot shot from the centre of the box off a rebound save from goalkeeper Joe Hart gave the hosts the lead in the eighth minute.
Croatia striker Nikola Kalinic doubled Fiorentina's advantage when he headed a Borja Valero cross to the bottom left corner following a corner in the 38th minute.
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After the change of ends, Torino pressed for the equaliser and got a golden opportunity to pull one back as Carlos Salcedo tripped Lucas Boye, resulting in a penalty. But Belotti was denied by the cross-bar.
However, the Torino hitman made amends four minutes later with a close-range header at the left post with a cross from the right by Emiliano Moretti following a corner.
Belotti struck the equaliser five minutes from time as he tapped home a diagonal pass from Daniele Baselli at the right post.
Following the draw, Fiorentina (41 points) and Torino (36 points) remained at the eighth and ninth spots respectively.
After the match, Torino coach Sinisa Mihajlovic was pleased with his side's fighting spirit, even if he rued the poor start. He said that his team didn't play the way they prepared in the first 60 minutes.
"On the positives there are the comeback and the reaction we had," he said.
--IANS
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