Veteran Swedish
forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic on Tuesday was involved in a heated verbal argument with Romelu
Lukaku during the Coppa Italia’s Milan derby quarter-final, calling the Belgian
a “little donkey” as well as taking a jibe at his ‘voodism’ episode.

AC Milan striker
Ibrahimovic taunted his Inter Milan counterpart at the stroke of half-time in
San Siro, laughing in his face before the two went head-to-head.

“Go do your
voodoo shit, you little donkey,” Ibrahimovic told his former Manchester United
teammate, referring to an incident during Lukaku’s stint with Everton, AFP reported.

In 2018,
Everton’s majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri said that Lukaku had snubbed a
contract extension because of an advice in a voodoo message. Lukaku, who joined
Manchester United in 2017, refuted all rumours linking his decision to leave
the ‘Toffees’ to ‘voodism’.

In January
2018, during an interview with BBC, a member of Lukaku’s team also hinted
towards possible legal action in the matter, highlighting the fact that Lukaku
was Catholic.

During
Tuesday’s ‘Derby Della Madonina’, the two towering strikers exchanged barbs as they
headed towards the tunnel for the half-time interval, with Ibrahimovic laughing
as an infuriated Lukaku was restrained by his teammates.

Both players received yellow cards over the incident. 

Ibrahimovic,
who at 39 has turned Milan into genuine title contenders with 12 goals in 9
Serie A games, was sent off 15 minutes into the second half as he collected his
second yellow card for a foul on Aleksander Kolarov.

Inter went
on to clinch the first semi-final berth with a 97th-minute free-kick
from Christian Eriksen after a Lukaku penalty cancelled out Ibrahimovic’s
first-half opener.

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Milan coach
Stefano Pioli and his Inter counterpart Antonio Conte played down the row,
saying they had not heard the players arguing and blamed any tension on the
nature of the fixture as a Milan derby.

According to Milan sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport Ibrahimovic apologised to his team for getting sent off but denied using racist terms towards Lukaku.

Italian
daily La Repubblica said the clash was “a poor spectacle that spoilt a
great game” while Corriere della Sera said it was a case of “one goal
each, (but) a bad scenario for everyone”. Corriere dello Sport called it a
“shameful” episode.