A stoppage-time objective by striker Noah Okafor secured AC Milan a 3-2 win at lowly Udinese in Serie A on Saturday after the sport was briefly suspended within the first half attributable to racist chants in direction of Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan.
Milan are third within the standings on 45 factors from 21 video games, six behind leaders Inter Milan and 4 adrift of second-placed Juventus, who each have a recreation in hand.
Midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek gave Milan the lead with a low first-time shot contained in the put up shortly earlier than the match was interrupted within the thirty third minute.
Maignan alerted the referee earlier than leaving the pitch attributable to repeated racist chants from the native followers, as reported by Italian media, and was adopted by his group mates to the tunnel.
“These things have nothing to do with football and they hurt, there is no such thing as black or white. We are all the same,” Okafor informed DAZN.
The membership and the league took to social media platform X, previously Twitter, to specific their disappointment.
“There is absolutely no place in our game for racism: we are appalled,” Milan mentioned.
“Lega Serie A condemns any form of racism,” added the Italian league.
The recreation was restarted after lower than 10 minutes and midfielder Lazar Samardzic levelled for the hosts earlier than the break earlier than Florian Thauvin put Udinese in entrance within the 62nd minute.
But Milan managed to grab victory when substitute Luka Jovic netted on a rebound within the 83rd minute, following up after Olivier Giroud hit the bar, and Okafor made it 3-2 in stoppage time from shut vary.
“In the first half hour we played well, we could have scored a few more goals,” coach Stefano Pioli informed a press convention.
“The (Maignan) episode then destabilised us a bit, but we recovered by returning to play our game and we managed to find the victory with great determination.”
The consequence noticed Pioli get pleasure from his one hundredth Serie A win with Milan after 166 matches performed.
He joined the slim circle of 4 managers who beforehand had led the Rossoneri to 100 league wins: Carlo Ancelotti, Nereo Rocco, Fabio Capello and Nils Liedholm.
Milan subsequent host seventh-placed Bologna on Jan. 27.
Udinese, who’re seventeenth with 18 factors, go to fifth-placed Atalanta on the identical day.
Source web site: www.hindustantimes.com
