Already reeling from being knocked out of the UEFA Champions League in midweek, Milan got off to a bizarrely awful start when Mike Maignan’s attempt to smash the ball up the pitch instead hit Malick Thiaw and trickled into the net just five minutes into proceedings.
Milinković-Savić was more fortunate when he kicked the ball straight at João Félix, as the ball harmlessly bounced back towards Il Toro’s goalkeeper. The Serbian then showed his quality by standing up well to deny Santiago Giménez after the visitors had cut through Torino’s defence.
Giménez then headed wide from a threatening Christian Pulisic cross as Milan stepped up their search for an equaliser, and they had a major opening when Rafael Leão rose above Marcus Pedersen to meet Álex Jiménez’s cross and Torino’s right-back handled his header.
However, the visitors’ misery continued with Milinković-Savić getting down superbly to stop Pulisic’s penalty with a strong hand. Milan at least avoided any further damage before the break, as Maignan saved one Nikola Vlašić shot and Strahinja Pavlović blocked another.
Sérgio Conceição turned to Youssouf Fofana and then Tammy Abraham in the 55th minute as he searched for change.
The substitutes linked up and Fofana tested Milinković-Savić, who then palmed away João Félix’s curling strike and left Tijjani Reijnders exasperated when he denied the Dutchman with an outstretched boot.
Giménez then fizzed his shot agonisingly past the post before João Félix’s venomous shot cannoned against the post.
Gvidas Gineitis came close to providing a buffer, and his side’s lead was finally snuffed out with a quarter-hour remaining, as Sebastian Walukiewicz’s attempted clearance set the ball into Reijnders' path for the midfielder to emphatically score.
Gineitis responded within three minutes, latching onto Antonio Sanabria’s intelligently taken quick free-kick and beating Maignan with a pinpoint strike.
Despite Sanabria passing up the opportunity to get a goal of his own, Torino stood firm to secure just the second win from their last 10 matches. They also inflicted the first defeat in Milan’s last five Serie A matches to leave them six points behind fourth-placed Lazio who have played one more match.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Vanja Milinković-Savić (Torino)
See a summary of the match here