Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Romelu Lukaku were involved in an ugly clash during the Milan derby Coppa Italia quarter-final on Tuesday night, which Inter won 2-1 over bitter rivals AC Milan.
The former Manchester United team-mates got into it during the dying moments of the first half at the San Siro.
Lukaku and Ibrahimovic were involved in a verbal joust before they bumped heads having not seen eye-to-eye, which resulted in both being booked by referee Paolo Valeri
As both were booked and pulled apart, Ibrahimovic can be heard yelling at Lukaku: “Go do your voodoo s***, you little donkey.”
The tension was palpable upon the half-time whistle with a livid Lukaku trying to chase Ibrahimovic down the tunnel – appearing to insinuate that the 39-year-old had made a comment about his mother.
The 27-year-old could be heard telling the AC Milan striker “f* you and your wife, you little b**” and “you want to speak about my mother!?” as his Inter team-mates had to hold him back.
After the interval, tempers had calmed down but Ibrahimovic found himself in trouble just 13 minutes after the restart when he was sent off for a second bookable offence.
The veteran Swede was shown his second yellow card of the match for a trip on Inter defender Aleksandar Kolarov – in an incident that changed the whole game.
The incident will have been surprising to fans of Manchester United, with the pair having previously got on well during their spell together at Old Trafford.
Before his dismissal on Tuesday night, Ibrahimovic had fired AC Milan ahead on 31 minutes with a low right-footed strike.
However, after his red card, Inter took advantage of the extra man, with their top goalscorer Lukaku firing a 71st-minute penalty into the net off the underside of the crossbar to equalise.
AC Milan boss Stefano Pioli told reporters Ibrahimovic said sorry to his team-mates after the match for getting sent off.
“He apologised like the great champion he is. He got a bit caught up in the desire to help the team,” added Pioli.
“They’re big enough and ugly enough, I don’t know what they said to each other, it can happen, we need to move past it and think of the next match,” AC Milan coach said.
In contrast, Conte praised the attitude of his star striker Lukaku during and following the aftermath of his spat.
“To be honest, I’ve been a player, so I know that during a game tempers can flare and situations occur when you get angry,” he said.
“The important thing is to keep it in the right dimension.
“It was good to see Romelu so concentrated and focused. Ibra has the determination of a winner, a warrior, and I think Romelu is growing in that aspect. I can only be happy to see him fired up.”
DM
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