by Zlatan Ibrahimovic became the oldest goalscorer in Serie A history on Saturday, but was unable to prevent AC Milan from losing 3-1 to Udinese.
Ibrahimovic, 41, was in Milan’s starting line-up for the first time since January last year and scored a second-attempt penalty in first-half stoppage time to make it 1-1 after the opening goal by Roberto Pereyra at nine minutes.
But it wasn’t enough to prevent fourth-place Milan from losing their fourth away game in their last five and missing out on a chance to provisionally move to second in Italy’s top flight.
Stefano Pioli’s side remain fourth, two points behind local rivals Inter Milan, in second place in the Champions League race.
They will drop out of the top four if Roma win the Rome derby with Lazio on Sunday night, while Inter take on fierce rivals Juventus in hopes of moving ahead of their rivals in the club’s top competition. of Europe.
“When a team plays like that, it means the coach hasn’t done his job. We played well below our level,” Pioli told Sky.
“We are not in a good position in the league and to be in the top four is very important for us… We haven’t done enough in the last few weeks.”
Ibrahimovic, wearing the captain’s armband, missed his first shot from the penalty spot but got a second chance when Beto was penalized for trespassing and shot hard into the middle of the goal.
Aged 41 years and 166 days, Ibrahimovic overtook former AC Milan defender Alessandro Costacurta, who also scored against Udinese in 2007 at age 41, as the oldest goalscorer in Italy’s top flight.
He had previously made three substitute appearances this season after being sidelined since May last year, following reconstructive surgery on the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
Udinese manager Andrea Sottil was sent off for his protests over the decision to award the penalty for Jaka Bijol’s handball and then allow Ibrahimovic to retake after Marco Silvestri’s brilliant save.
But Sottil’s men went ahead at half-time when Beto made amends for his earlier mistake by finishing off a low cross from Isaac Success on the stroke of half-time.
And Kingsley Ehizibue secured Udinese’s second win in as many league games, just their third since early October, stealing at the far post to tuck in Destiny Udogie’s missed shot.
Udinese’s first home win since mid-September lifts them to eighth, tied on 38 points with Juve and one point ahead of Bologna, who drew 2-2 at Salernitana on Saturday.
“It’s a great win, we were in a difficult period but we worked hard and we deserved this win,” Pereyra told Sky.
“We are going in the right direction and we have to keep going, we know what our qualities are.
“We have 11 games left and we will try with everyone.”
Monza drew 1-1 with struggling Cremonese in the first game of the day.
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