Amorim sent two substitutes on at 57 minutes, and Milan had won it by 67

Ruben Amorim’s first Serie A match as Milan coach was going nowhere for an hour. Then he made two changes, and within ten minutes of them coming on the game was won.

Milan beat Torino 2-1 at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino on Sunday, and the manner of it will interest anyone wondering how Amorim intends to manage a squad this deep.

Two on at 57, two goals by 67

Luka Modric and Adrien Rabiot were the substitutes. Rabiot set up the opener for Alphadjo Cisse in the 64th minute and scored the second himself three minutes later. Ten minutes after walking on, he had turned a goalless hour into a two-goal lead.

Cisse’s goal is the one that will get replayed. He is 19, it was his Milan debut, and by scoring it he became the youngest Italian to score for the club in Serie A since Patrick Cutrone in August 2017. “I never thought I could score on my debut for Milan,” he said afterwards, which is the sort of line teenagers say and mean.

Torino got one back through Che Adams in the third minute of stoppage time, a finish worth watching twice, and far too late to matter. They had chances before that. Alieu Njie hit the post. Zakaria Aboukhlal missed from close in. Milan held on rather than closed it out, which is worth noting about a side playing its first competitive league match under a new system.

Rabiot answered the part of the summer he was being blamed for

There is a subplot here. Rabiot came back late from World Cup duty, took extra days off, and got a fortnight of Italian criticism for it. He has spent the last week saying he understands what Amorim wants and shrugging the rest off as the usual noise.

Then he came off the bench and produced a goal and an assist in three minutes. It is now the fourth time he has scored in his first match of a season in one of Europe’s top five leagues, which is a strange and specific habit to have, and a useful one for a player who keeps arriving somewhere new.

One game is one game

Amorim was appointed in June, and this was the first league fixture he has taken charge of at Milan. Three points away from home is the right start, though the reading of it depends on what you were watching for. If it was the first hour, Milan were flat and Torino were comfortable. If it was the last half hour, the bench changed the game and a 19-year-old on debut scored.

Serie A is long enough that both of those things can turn out to be true. What Milan take out of Turin is three points and the knowledge that their new manager will change a game at 57 minutes rather than wait and hope.

More results and reaction from Europe’s top leagues