Zlatan Ibrahimović Hits Out at AC Milan Performance After Blowing 2-0 Lead in Derby
By Tom Gott
Oh dear. Zlatan Ibrahimović is not a happy bunny.
The nomadic Swede returned to AC Milan in January to help fire I Rossoneri back to glory, and he certainly looked to have steered the team on the right track on Sunday. He scored one and assisted another to give his side a 2-0 lead in the Milan derby against Inter, but then things fell apart.
Inter came out like a team possessed in the second half, netting four unanswered goals to fire themselves to the top of the Serie A, and Ibrahimović was not happy about the whole thing.
“It’s difficult to explain what happened,” he told Sky Sport Italia. “At half time we told ourselves, the first 15 minutes going back out there will be crucial, and in that 15-minute spell we conceded two goals.
“We stopped playing, the team stopped believing, we stopped pressing, didn’t pass it around enough. From the equaliser onwards, everything collapsed.
“I think a lot of it is down to experience, because you must know how to control a game at 2-0 up, not just winning at the end. It’s strange, because our first half was practically perfect. I expected more from Inter and the first half performance did not look like a team worthy of second place. They did after the break.”
To make matters worse, Romelu Lukaku, who netted the final goal of the game late on, took to Twitter to poke fun at Ibrahimović by reminding him who the best striker in Milan is these days.
Lukaku has now netted in both games against Milan this season, taking his tally for the campaign to 21 goals and four assists in just 30 games in all competitions, so calling himself the 'king' of Milan is probably a fair shout these days.
For Milan, their collapse saw them fall down to tenth in the Serie A standings, and they now sit a whopping 22 points behind their rivals.