The Coppa Italia Milan derby knows no end as Paolo Maldini and Beppe Marotta continued to discuss the spat between Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Romelu Lukaku.
Ibra and Lukaku were involved in a scuffle during Tuesday’s Coppa Italia derby.
The referee Paolo Valeri booked both players with Ibra who was sent off after picking up another yellow card in the second half.
The Coppa Italia Milan derby knows no end as Paolo Maldini and Beppe Marotta continued to discuss the spat between Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Romelu Lukaku.
Ibra and Lukaku were involved in a scuffle during Tuesday’s Coppa Italia derby.
The referee Paolo Valeri booked both players with Ibra who was sent off after picking up another yellow card in the second half.
Lukaku was one yellow card away from suspension and will therefore miss the first-leg semi-final against Juventus next week.
There could be more consequences for Ibra as the Swede reportedly risks a long ban if he is found guilty of racist abuse.
The spat made headlines all over the world and four days after the dispute, both Maldini and Marotta shared their views on what happened at the Giuseppe Meazza earlier this week.
“We’ll see how it goes. If someone tries to pull racism into this, then we are prepared to defend our player, because racism has nothing to do with Ibra,” the Rossoneri director said before their away game at Bologna.
“The player apologised to the team for leaving them down to 10 men. Lukaku was attacking his teammates for no reason, so he stood up for them.”
Apparently, Marotta doesn’t share the same view.
“The images are clear for all to see. I can say, knowing Lukaku well, that he is not an aggressive person,” he told DAZN ahead of Inter-Benenvento.
“Having said that, it was certainly not a positive advert for Italian football, or football in general. Our duty as the club is to educate our players not to behave like this, because children are watching and we want to see only positive images, so no violence, and I include verbal violence in that too.”
Inter are two points behind Serie A leaders Milan and the two sides meet again on February 21 in a League derby.