Zlatan Ibrahimovic fought with an ex-teammate and was later sent off asAC Milan suffered a late loss in the Coppa Italia quarterfinal to rivalsInter Milan .- The Swede clashed heads and exchanged insults with former
Manchester United teammate Romelu Lukaku just before half-time. - "F--- you and your wife, you little b----," Lukaku said to Ibrahimovic, according to TalkSPORT.
Two of world football's top strikers engaged in a violent on field clash during Tuesday night's Milan derby, butting heads and hurling curse words at each other.
After opening the scoring in the Coppa Italia quarterfinal with a fine strike in the 31st minute, Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic clashed with his former teammate Romelu Lukaku just before the interval.
The pair, who played together for Manchester United during the 2017/18 season, could be seen and heard on television exchanging insults and squaring up to one another, with Lukaku eventually having to be restrained by his teammates.
In video of the clash, Ibrahimovic can be heard shouting at Lukaku: "Go do your voodoo s---, go do your voodoo s---, little donkey."
Lukaku replied by saying: "F--- you and your wife, you little b----."
Both players were booked as the spat continued into the tunnel at half-time.
—ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 26, 2021
It is thought that Ibrahimovic's reference to voodoo relates to a 2018 claim by Everton's owner that Lukaku, who is of Congolese descent, left the club after "he had a voodoo" during a pilgrimage in Africa.
"He said he was on a pilgrimage in Africa or somewhere and he had a voodoo and he got the message that he needs to go to Chelsea," Farhad Moshiri said at the club's general meeting. Lukaku eventually left Everton for Manchester United.
After the scuffle between the two men died down Tuesday, it was Lukaku who had the last laugh.
Ibrahimovic was sent off for a second yellow card in the 58th minute, then Lukaku levelled for his side from the penalty spot in the 71st minute.
Midfielder Christian Eriksen then scored a superb free-kick in the seventh of 10 minutes of added time to hand Inter victory and send it through to the semifinal, where it will play either Juventus or SPAL.
In February 2020, prior to Lukaku's first clash against Ibrahimovic in Italy, the Belgian striker was full of kind words for his former United teammate.
"Ibra is a champion, I respect him," Lukaku told Tiki Taka. "In Manchester I could train every day with him, that was the most beautiful thing for me. It will be nice to play against him. He is a great champion and professional."
However, in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport in 2019, as per Football Italia, Ibrahimovic was far from complimentary when discussing Lukaku.
"I will say this on Romelu: don't expect good technique from Lukaku," he said. "His best strength is sheer power. If only he'd listened to me," Ibrahimovic said.
"At Manchester United, we made a bet: 'I'll give you £50 for every decent first touch you make'.
"He replied: 'What do I win if I get them all right?' I told him nothing, he would simply become a better player. For the record, he never accepted the bet! Perhaps he was afraid of losing?! Joking aside, Lukaku has this mad hunger to prove himself to the world and I'm sure he will do well at Inter too."
Since joining Inter from United in the summer of 2019, Lukaku has scored 51 times in just 73 games.
Ibrahimovic has been equally prolific since returning for a second spell at AC Milan in December 2019, scoring 25 goals in 35 games.
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