Ibrahimovic brace gives AC Milan winning start
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored doubly AC Milan got their Serie A campaign ready to go with a 2-0 make an impression on Bologna on Monday.
Ibrahimovic, who turns 39 the following month, showed he has lost none of his goalscoring skills having also netted the other day against Irish side Shamrock Rovers in the Europa League.
“If I have been 20 years old I'd have scored two more goals,” said the Swede of his display.
“I’m like Benjamin Button, born old, but I’ll die young. Seriously, the team has worked well: you can see we’re not at completely yet, nonetheless it was important to begin well.”
Ibrahimovic grabbed the opener in the 35th minute, rising greater than Danilo to get his head to a Theo Hernandez cross, and celebrated before the 1,000 spectators allowed into the San Siro for the very first time since the coronavirus pandemic - mostly invited frontline health employees who had toiled through the worst of the crisis.
The Swede missed a opportunity for a second shortly after when he was denied by a sliding tackle from Brazilian defender Danilo.
But six minutes following the break he added another from the penalty spot after a Riccardo Orsolini foul on Ismael Bennacer.
He missed a chance for a third soon after the hour mark following a counter-attack launched by Hakan Calhanoglu, but Lukasz Skorupski proved solid in the Bologna goal.
Bologna were again saved by Skorupski towards the end of the match, with the Pole pushing out a Hernandez volley.
Milan keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma also won his duel against Andreas Skov Olsen while Federico Santander hitting the woodwork for the away side.
Bologna finished a guy down with Mitchell Dijks send off with two minutes to go but it made no difference to the match.
“They had Ibrahimovic, we didn’t,” said Bologna coach Sinisa Mihajlovic.
“Ibra made the difference, everything Milan created came through him. But it was a balanced game.
“Maybe we didn’t have confidence in ourselves enough, however the lads were in it to the end, we created two big scoring opportunities.”
