Milan, April 11: Zlatan Ibrahimovic set up two goals but was also sent off as AC Milan won 3-1 at relegation-threatened Parma to keep its small Serie A title hopes alive.
Ibrahimovic had a hand in both Milan’s first-half goals on Saturday but was shown a straight red card on the hour mark for something he appeared to say to referee Fabio Maresca.
Riccardo Gagliolo reduced the deficit but substitute Rafael Leão sealed the result in stoppage time as Milan moved to within eight points of league leader Inter Milan.
Milan is in a tight fight for second place with Juventus and Atalanta. Both play on Sunday. In Parma, Milan got off to a perfect start as Ibrahimovic sent a throughball to Ante Rebic, who gathered with his back to goal, spun round and fired powerfully into the top right corner.
The 39-year-old Ibrahimovic was also involved in Milan’s second, a minute from the break. Theo Hernández played a one-two with the Sweden forward and touched it onto Franck Kessié, who drilled into the bottom left corner.
Parma had a triple chance to get back into the match five minutes into the second half but Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma pulled off a double save to deny first Andrea Conti and then Graziano Pellè, and Juraj Kucka’s attempt was over the bar.
Ibrahimovic was sent off shortly after and Parma got back into the match six minutes later. A ball was floated to the back post and Pellè nodded it across to Gagliolo, who managed to prod in from close range.
Milan held on and made sure of all three points when Diogo Dalot raced down the right and rolled across for fellow substitute Leão to fire into the bottom right corner, shortly after coming off the bench.
Inter Milan continued its march to its first Serie A title in more than a decade as it beat relegation-threatened Cagliari 1-0 on Sunday.
Defender Matteo Darmian scored the only goal of the match in the 77th minute as Inter found it tougher than expected against a side fighting for Serie A survival.
Inter restored an 11-point advantage over second-place AC Milan. Cagliari remained five points from safety. Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario made his Serie A debut.
Stefan de Vrij headed a corner off the bar in the 69th and Inter finally found the breakthrough shortly after. Achraf Hakimi played a one-two with Romelu Lukaku on the right side of the area before rolling across for Darmian to slide in at the back post and fire in from close range.
Juventus eased to a 3-1 victory over Genoa to keep alive their faint hopes of winning a 10th successive Serie A title.
The champions raced into a comfortable lead inside 22 minutes thanks to goals from Dejan Kulusevski and Alvaro Morata, the striker converting after Cristiano Ronaldo had hit the post. Gianluca Scamacca pulled on back for Genoa four minutes after the break.
In other matches, Torino beat Udinese 1-0, Lazio defeated Verona also by a 1-0 margin while Napoli managed a 2-0 win over Sampdoria. (AP)
