Zlatan matches Ronaldo record in Milan win

Zlatan Ibrahimovic equaled the record set by Cristiano Ronaldo as he scored in AC Milan's 3-0 win over 10-man Venezia.

The evergreen 40-year-old striker opened the scoring on Sunday with barely two minutes on the clock, before Theo Hernandez double completed the win.

Venezia is the 80th team against which the Swedish giants have scored in the top five European leagues.

Ibrahimovic and Ronaldo, who achieved the feat against Burnley in the Premier League on 30 December, are the only players to reach the milestone since 2000.

Venezia put up a spirited defense, but the match quickly turned in the second half as the home side quickly went down 1–0 to 3–0 and was shown a straight red card for a denial by defender Michael Svoboda. The player was sent. Clear scoring opportunity.

The win put the Rossoneri at least temporarily at the top of the table, two points ahead of Inter Milan, who play in Lazio later on Sunday.

Milan won their opening match of the year 3-1 against Roma but were still without more than 10 players due to the coronavirus, injuries and Africa Cup of Nations duty.

However, they got off to the right start when Rafael Leo cut inside from the left and rolled for Ibrahimovic to tuck in from point-blank range.

Milan threatened to double the lead several times, but had to wait until the start of the second half to do so, thanks to another assist from Leo, who threaded the ball for Hernández to burst to the left and Sergio. Cut the inside before blasting Romero.

And any hope of Venezia coming back in the match vanished in the 58th minute when Svoboda was sent over the line to block a Hernandez shot from his hand.

Hernandez, who was wearing the captain's armband, sent the resulting penalty to the top right corner.