AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan and his team-mates walked off the pitch during the first half of the 3-2 Serie A win at Udinese on Saturday evening.
The 28-year-old France international left the action shortly after his team had taken the lead, apparently indicating to referee Fabio Maresca that he had heard racist abuse from the crowd at the Stadio Friuli.
Maignan was followed by the other Milan players but they returned to the pitch soon after and play was able to resume around seven minutes after Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s goal had broken the deadlock.
Maignan was beaten three minutes later by a Lazar Samardzic shot, before substitute Florian Thauvin scored to give Udinese the lead.
However, fellow sub Luka Jovic earned the visitors a point with a close-range finish with eight minutes remaining, before another second-half replacement – Noah Okafor – won it in added-time.
Before the Maignan incident, Olivier Giroud had been denied in the 16th minute when his shot was saved at the near post by Udinese goalkeeper Maduka Okoye.
The France international striker had another chance three minutes later but he failed to get clean contact on a ball from Theo Hernandez and Okoye saved.
The visitors opened the scoring in the 31st minute when Loftus-Cheek netted his third Serie A goal of the season, sidefooting Hernandez’s cutback into the corner with the aid of a slight deflection.
After the incident involving Maignan, the hosts levelled when Samardzic’s curling left-footed shot from just outside the area gave the goalkeeper no chance.
Udinese took the lead in the 62nd minute, through Thauvin. The 30-year-old former Newcastle winger capitalised on weak defending from Fernandez and Tijani Reijnders before beating the exposed Maignan with a left-footed shot.
Yacine Adli should have done better for the visitors when unmarked at the far post in the 79th minute, then Giroud headed wide, under pressure, soon after.
The visitors equalised in the 82nd minute, Jovic reacting quickly to finish off from close range after Giroud’s deflected shot had struck the bar, just seven minutes after the Serbian’s introduction.
Giroud saw a shot tipped over in added time before Okafor got the visitors’ winner in the third minute of added-time, blasting in unmarked at the far post after Giroud had won a header.
The goal extended Milan’s winning run to four matches and reduced the gap on table-topping city rivals Inter to six points.
Inter 2-0 Torino: Nerazzurri ease to win in party atmosphere
Hakan Calhanoglu scored twice to give newly-crowned Serie A champions Inter a comfortable 2-0 win over 10-man Torino on Sunday, extending their unbeaten league run to 28 games.
It was a party atmosphere at the San Siro with confetti and fireworks before kick-off as the Inter fans continued to celebrate the Scudetto title they secured on Monday with a 2-1 derby win over Milan.
Inter's win over Torino moves them onto 89 points, 19 clear of Milan with four games remaining.
The Torino players gave Inter a guard of honour as they entered the pitch and Inter coach Simone Inzaghi answered the crowd's call for him to celebrate with them.
In the first Serie A game to be officiated by an all-female refereeing team, four minutes after half-time Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi sent off Torino's Adrien Tameze for a foul on Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Inter made the breakthrough seven minutes later when Mkhitaryan passed to Calhanoglu in the area who drove a shot into the bottom corner.
Calhanoglu converted a penalty four minutes later after a foul on Marcus Thuram and the party will continue into the evening as the Inter players parade through the streets of Milan on open-top buses.
Torino remain 10th in the standings on 46 points.
Kane gunning for Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record
Harry Kane has his eyes set on Robert Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record after scoring twice in Bayern Munich's 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, though he knows he needs "to get a move on".
Kane scored in both halves on Saturday to take his tally to 42 goals this season across all competitions, also reaching the 400-goal mark at senior level for clubs and country.
The striker scored 280 of those goals for Tottenham, holding the honour of being the club's all-time leading scorer, while he is also the most prolific player in England history with 62 goals for the Three Lions.
With 35 goals in 31 Bundesliga appearances this season, Kane now has his eyes set on another piece of history.
Former Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski holds the record for the most goals scored in a single Bundesliga campaign, netting 41 times in 2020-21.
Asked about the possibility of breaking that record with just three games remaining in Bayern's league campaign, Kane said: "It's possible, but obviously I have to get a move on!
"I've got to maybe score a few goals next week. It's there, it's in touching distance.
"It depends on the last few games of course, but it was nice to add to it today and score a couple of goals to help the team."
Bayern next host Real Madrid in the first leg of a Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday, before travelling to face Stuttgart on Saturday.
Pochettino says VAR 'damaging' English football as Chelsea denied Villa win
Mauricio Pochettino claimed VAR is "damaging" English football after Chelsea saw a potential winning goal chalked off at the end of their 2-2 Premier League draw with Aston Villa.
Despite a bright performance, Chelsea found themselves 2-0 down at half-time on Saturday with Marc Cucurella putting through his own net before Morgan Rogers added Villa's second.
Goals from Noni Madueke and Conor Gallagher dragged Chelsea level as they penned Villa back after the break, but the Blues were enraged in stoppage time when Axel Disasi saw a potential winner ruled out.
Disasi headed home in the fifth minute of stoppage time to spark wild celebrations among the visiting Chelsea fans, only for referee Craig Pawson to disallow the goal following a pitchside VAR review, ruling Benoit Badiashile pushed Diego Carlos in the build-up.
With that incident coming just one week after Chelsea were denied a penalty in their FA Cup semi-final loss to Manchester City despite Jack Grealish appearing to handle Cole Palmer's free-kick, Pochettino has had enough.
"Everyone that was watching the game will feel disappointed. The referee said it was a foul and disallowed the goal after going to the VAR to confirm," he told TNT Sports.
"The referee is unbelievable and it's ridiculous. It is difficult to accept these types of things. In the semi-final it was handball and it was no penalty, the referee didn't check it.
"It is painful as it has damaged English football and I think Villa players and their fans didn't understand why the goal was disallowed.
"They said it was a foul and if you see the challenge… if we go into every single challenge like this and it is going to be a foul, we wouldn't finish the game with 11 players.
"We can talk about the performance or the decision – it is damaging the game."
Pochettino had no complaints about Chelsea's performance, though, as they avoided defeat for just the fourth time in 51 Premier League games when trailing by two or more goals at half-time.
The Blues previously achieved that feat in a 3-3 draw with Sheffield Wednesday in 1992, a memorable 2-2 draw with Tottenham in 2016 and another 3-3 draw with West Brom in 2020.
Chelsea racked up 21 shots to Villa's nine and put up 1.57 expected goals (xG) to the hosts' 1.1, with Nicolas Jackson and Palmer spurning glorious chances in either half.
"The performance was very good," Pochettino said. "We played really well and it is true in the first half we conceded too easily.
"To play Villa, who are fighting for the top four, I am pleased with the team. Now, we have to move on and the headlines will be about the disallowed goal."
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