Milan sweat on Ibrahimovic injury after his double earns leaders win at Napoli
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice but picked up a worrying late injury as Serie A leaders Milan beat 10-man Napoli 3-1, their first league victory in Naples for a decade.
The 39-year-old forward opened the scoring with a bullet header into the bottom corner in the first half, then bundled in his second to take his league goal tally to 10 in six games. Dries Mertens pulled one back for the hosts, before a clumsy challenge by Tiémoué Bakayoko earned the Napoli midfielder a second yellow card.
Ibrahimovic was forced off with a muscle problem with 11 minutes to go, and was pictured sitting on the bench with an ice pack strapped to his left leg. Milan made sure of victory in stoppage time as Jens Petter Hauge grabbed their third goal.
Milan assistant coach Daniele Bonera, who stepped in after the head coach Stefano Pioli tested positive for COVID-19, was unable to shed any light on the severity of the injury. “I don’t have much information, he had ice on his thigh and we’ll see in the next few days what the tests say. He isn’t someone who usually comes off the pitch,” Bonera told Sky Sport.
“We want to stay high up the table but after eight rounds it’s too soon to get carried away,” Bonera added. “There are teams that have invested more than us and that were built to win the league. We weren’t built to win straight away, but we’re growing game after game.”
Earlier, Romelu Lukaku scored twice as Internazionale completed a thrilling second-half comeback from two goals down to beat Torino 4-2 in Serie A on Sunday, ending a four-match winless run in all competitions.
Simone Zaza struck late in the first half to give the visitors a deserved lead, and Cristian Ansaldi doubled their advantage from the penalty spot after the interval. The hosts were sparked into life by that goal, with Alexis Sán
chez and Lukaku scoring within five minutes of the spot-kick to draw the hosts level.
The Belgian striker then netted a penalty with six minutes remaining, before setting up the substitute Lautaro Martínez for a last-minute fourth. Inter, who face Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday, move up to fifth place on 15 points, while Torino stay in relegation trouble.
“Honestly, we aren’t a great team yet because we get ourselves into trouble like this,” Lukaku told Dazn. “For the first hour we played badly, we didn’t have enough fight and desire. Then we woke up and we won, which is the most important thing.”
Surprise package Sassuolo stayed second with a 2-0 win at Verona, goals from Jérémie Boga and Domenico Berardi continuing their unbeaten start. Roma rose to third as Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored twice in a 3-0 home win over Parma. Cesare Prandelli’s second stint as Fiorentina coach got off to a poor start as they lost 1-0 at home to promoted Benevento. Bologna won 2-1 at Sampdoria, while Udinese climbed out of the bottom three with a 1-0 home win over Genoa.
In Ligue 1, Lille cut the gap to leaders PSG to two points with a 4-0 home win over Lorient. Turkish forward Yusuf Yazici scored twice and set up Luiz Araújo for Lille’s third goal, before summer signing Jonathan David broke his duck from close range. Lyon are third after Tino Kadewere’s late winner at Angers, while Montpellier moved up to fourth after edging a seven-goal thriller at home to Strasbourg.
In La Liga, Real Sociedad moved three points clear at the top after Alexander Isak’s header sealed victory at Cádiz. The Basque side have played two more games than second-placed Atléŧico Madrid. Valencia rallied from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Alavés, and Valladolid climbed off the foot of the table with victory at Granada.
Union Berlin moved up to fifth in the Bundesliga table with a 2-1 win at Cologne. Max Kruse got the winner on the rebound after his penalty was saved by Timo Horn, as the hosts dropped into the relegation zone. Mainz climbed out with their first league win, JeanPhilippe Mateta’s hat-trick earning a 3-1 win over Freiburg.