AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan and his team-mates walked off the pitch during the first half of their 3-2 Serie A win at Udinese on Saturday evening.
The 28-year-old France international left the action shortly after his team had taken the lead, apparently indicating to referee Fabio Maresca that he had heard racist abuse from the crowd at the Stadio Friuli.
Maignan was followed by the other Milan players – shortly after Ruben Loftus-Cheek had given them a 31st-minute lead – but they returned to the pitch and play resumed about 10 minutes later.
Udinese hit back through Lazar Samardzic before the interval and substitute Florian Thauvin gave them a second-half lead.
Luka Jovic headed a late equaliser for Milan and substitute Noah Okafor snatched them all three points in stoppage time.
Roma won their first match under new boss Daniele de Rossi just four days after sacking Jose Mourinho with a 2-1 home victory against Verona.
Romelu Lukaku and Lorenzo Pellegrini gave Roma a 2-0 half-time lead and Michael Folorunsho pulled one back for the visitors.
In LaLiga, Athletic Bilbao missed the chance to close the gap on top two Girona and Real Madrid as they lost 1-0 at Valencia, where Hugo Duro headed the only goal in the second half.
Real Sociedad retained their top-six place thanks to Brais Mendez’s solitary first-half strike in a 1-0 victory at Celta Vigo, Las Palmas made it back-to-back wins after beating Rayo Vallecano 2-0 on the road and Villarreal were held 1-1 at home by Mallorca.
Bayer Leverkusen extended their lead at the top of the Bundesliga to seven points after Piero Hincapie’s stoppage-time goal clinched them a 3-2 win at Leipzig.
Nathan Tella cancelled out Xavi Simons’ early opener for Leipzig and although the home side led again through Lois Openda, Jonathan Tah headed Leverkusen level and Hincapie struck in the third minute of added time.
Second-placed Bayern Munich will bid to close the gap when they play Werder Bremen at home on Sunday.
Stuttgart missed the chance to make up ground on the top two as they lost 1-0 at Bochum, for whom Matus Bero fired a second-half winner.
Donyell Malen scored twice, while Niclas Fullkrug (penalty) and Youssoufa Moukoko were also on target as Borussia Dortmund consolidated fifth place with a 4-0 win at Cologne.
Heidenheim drew 1-1 at home against Wolfsburg, 10-man Freiburg, who had Manuel Gulde sent off late on, beat Hoffenheim 3-2 and Christoph Klarer’s goal in added time earned bottom club Darmstadt a 2-2 home draw against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Almeria 0-2 Barcelona: Fermin at the double in easy Blaugrana win
Barcelona remained on track to finish second in LaLiga after Fermin Lopez's brace sealed a 2-0 win over bottom side Almeria on Thursday.
Fermin gave Barca an early lead in the 14th minute when he headed past goalkeeper Luis Maximiano from Hector Fort's accurate cross.
Despite efforts from Cesar Montes and Lucas Robertone, Almeria were unable to find an equaliser.
Fermin netted his second from Sergi Roberto's cross to wrap up the win for Barca in the 67th minute.
Xavi's side are on 79 points, four clear of Catalan rivals Girona, whose hopes of finishing second are fading fast after Tuesday's 1-0 defeat to Villarreal.
Real Madrid, who have already clinched the title, continue to pull away from Barca after a 5-0 win over Alaves on Tuesday.
Data Debrief: Holding the Fort
Fort provided the assist for Barca's opener, his second assist of the campaign in LaLiga.
Three players aged under 20 have provided an assist in LaLiga for the Blaugrana this term – Lamine Yamal (four), Fort (two) and Gavi (one). That is not a statistic matched by any other team in Europe's top five leagues.
Charlotte FC v LA Galaxy: Smith looking to build on 'untidy' win over Fire
Dean Smith is looking for his Charlotte FC side to build upon their 1-0 win over the Chicago Fire when they host the LA Galaxy this weekend.
Charlotte made it three wins in a row as they narrowly beat the Fire during midweek thanks to Ashley Westwood's 60th-minute winner.
The three-match win streak has taken Charlotte all the way up to fifth in the Eastern Conference, and though Smith was not enthralled by the manner of the victory over Chicago, he appreciated his side's mindset.
"I saw the mentality, but I didn’t see a game of football that I liked. It certainly won’t make the highlight reel," Smith told reporters.
"It wasn't a thriller of any sort. It was an untidy game from both teams but we showed real good mentality to limit them to few chances, and we took the one we had from a set piece."
The Galaxy, meanwhile, drew 2-2 at Minnesota United on Wednesday, leaving them fifth in the Western Conference and four points off leaders Real Salt Lake.
Minnesota equalised with just 10 minutes to play, but Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney still thought it was a solid point for his side.
"We've got to try to take this point and start to heal and start to recover and move on to the next one," Vanney said.
"[It is a] good, hard-earned point at the end of the day even though there was a chance for us to get three there at the tail end."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Charlotte FC – Ashley Westwood
Westwood scored the lone goal in Charlotte’s win over Chicago on Wednesday at the hour mark. Nine of Charlotte's 11 goals since March 23 have been scored after half-time, and Westwood will be hoping to spur his side on once more this Saturday by finding the net again.
LA Galaxy – Riqui Puig
Puig assisted both of the Galaxy's goals against Minnesota on Wednesday after also recording assists on both Galaxy goals on Saturday against Salt Lake. Puig is the first Galaxy player to record multiple assists in consecutive matches since Romain Alessandrini in 2018, and he will hope to make it three such games in a row this weekend.
MATCH PREDICTION – CHARLOTTE WIN
Charlotte and the Galaxy have each recorded a 1-0 away win against the other. Both goals were scored after the 70th minute.
The Galaxy have drawn each of their last three matches with the last two ending 2-2. In their last 22 matches, the Galaxy have scored two or more goals 15 times and allowed two or more goals 17 times.
Charlotte have won three straight matches, keeping clean sheets in all three. This is the first time Charlotte have kept clean sheets in three straight matches in club history, and with home advantage this weekend, they look the favourites to pick up the three points on Saturday.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Charlotte: 47.3%
Galaxy: 25.8%
Draw: 26.9%
Al-Ittihad pegged back as winless run rolls on
Mohamed Sherif scored late on as Al-Ittihad's winless run in the Saudi Pro League stretched to four games after a 1-1 draw with Al-Khaleej.
Al-Ittihad have endured a miserable title defence, and with just two games remaining, the highest the big-spending, PIF-backed club can finish is fourth.
Muhannad Al Shanqiti put them ahead on the stroke of half-time, yet despite having a further eight shots and accumulating 1.07 xG in the second half, Al-Ittihad could not add another.
Their profligacy proved costly in the 81st minute, with Egypt international Sherif snatching an equaliser for 11th-placed Al-Khaleej.
Al-Tai moved out of the relegation zone with a surprise 3-1 win over seventh-placed Al-Fateh, with Bernard Mensah scoring twice.
Al-Raed, meanwhile, claimed a 1-0 win at Al-Wehda.
Data Debrief: Kante the creator?
On the day he received a surprising France recall, N'Golo Kante created three chances for Al-Ittihad, leading the team.
On the flip side, Kante only attempted one tackle, with the midfielder showing a different side to his game, not that it proved fruitful for his team.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
