Serie A

The irrepressible Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored an acrobatic late goal, taking his league tally to seven this season, to give Serie A leaders AC Milan a hard-fought 2-1 win at Udinese on Sunday.

Ibrahimovic, with his back to goal, hooked the ball into the net with an overhead kick in the 83rd minute despite not making proper contact after Sebastien De Maio had sliced an attempted clearance high into the air from Ante Rebic's cross.

Juventus and Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo has recovered from a COVID-19 infection, the Serie A club said on Friday.

. @Cristiano recovers from Covid-19https://t.co/4etecyAw0O pic.twitter.com/YPZSm0My8A

— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) October 30, 2020

It’s been a dream start to the campaign for Napoli after a disappointing seventh-place finish last season (apart from the ludicrous fallout of the abandoned Juventus match), and a key to the club’s revival has been the renaissance of Hirving “Chucky” Lozano.

AC Milan and AS Roma drew 3-3 at the San Siro on Monday in a ridiculous match that included a brace for Zlatan Ibrahimović and a late Marash Kumbulla equalizer that only arrived after the 39-year-old Swede failed to clear a corner.

109 seconds into the match, Ibrahimović turned Rafael Leão’s beautiful cross beyond Antonio Mirante for an early lead. 

Rafael Leão to Zlatan Ibrahimovic!

Ibra is now joint-top scorer in Serie A pic.twitter.com/FwzDaB7VmJ

Juventus should not require a slap to wake up even if the atmosphere at grounds is soporific, coach Andrea Pirlo said after the Serie A champions stumbled to a 1-1 draw against Verona on Sunday.

Pirlo said he could understand players might be influenced by appearing in near-empty stadiums during the COVID-19 pandemic but added that it was something they would have to adapt to.

Lorenzo Insigne and his younger brother Roberto scored for opposing sides on Sunday as Napoli came from behind to win 2-1 away to promoted Benevento in Serie A.

Roberto Insigne, the younger of the two, stunned Napoli by scoring his first Serie A goal at the age of 26 before Lorenzo leveled on the hour and substitute Andrea Petagna won the game for the visitors who moved into second place.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said on Thursday he is not interested in a European Super League amid reports that some elite clubs were in talks to set up a breakaway competition with the backing of the global soccer body.

In an interview published by German-language newspaper Aargauer Zeitung and other regional Swiss media, Infantino said FIFA was focused on the success of the revamped Club World Cup, which will feature 24 teams and be held for the first time in China in 2022.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic caught Covid-19 in September and turned 39 on Oct. 3. Neither has slowed him down one bit.

I tested negative to Covid yesterday and positive today. No symptoms what so ever. Covid had the courage to challenge me. Bad idea

— Zlatan Ibrahimović (@Ibra_official) September 24, 2020

Napoli hosting Atalanta was always going to produce plenty of goals, with two of Italy’s most electric offenses meeting at the San Paolo Stadium on Saturday. We just didn’t think they’d all be from one club in the first half, including two Chucky Lozano goals vs Atalanta.

MILAN — Cristiano Ronaldo became involved in a public row with Italy's sports minister on Friday as the pair indirectly accused each other of lying over whether the Portugal international had broken health rules after testing positive for COVID-19.

Vincenzo Spadafora said on Thursday the Juventus forward might have infringed the rules by flying back to Italy from national team duty in Portugal after he tested positive for the virus earlier this week.

But in a social media post on Friday, Ronaldo hit back and said he had done everything by the book.