European wrap: Ireland U19 defender James Abankwah makes Serie A debut for Udinese

Former St Patrick's Athletic defender James Abankwah made his Serie A debut on Sunday as both he and fellow Republic of Ireland underage international Festy Ebosele were involved for Udinese in their 3-0 defeat at Bologna.

Waterford-born Abankwah joined the Italian top flight side from St Pat's last year after a season-and-a-half at first-team level in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division which also saw him win an FAI Cup winner's medal in November 2021.

While included in Udinese's matchday squads for all but two of their Serie A matches this season, his only minutes to date had been for the club's U19 primavera side.

But with four minutes to go and trailing by three goals at Bologna, Abankwah was brought on by his manager Andrea Sottil at the Stadio Renato Dall'Ara.

Ireland U21 wing-back Ebosele started the match for Udinese but was replaced at the interval.

The Wexford native, who moved to Serie A last summer from Derby County, has made 10 appearances for the club from Italy's north east.

Bologna's goals were scored by Stefan Posch, Nikola Moro and Musa Barrow.

Elsewhere in Italy's top division, goals from Pedro and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic earned Lazio a 2-0 win at Monza to lift them five points clear of Inter Milan in the standings.

Maurizio Sarri's side seized the opportunity to strengthen their grip on second place ahead of Inter, who lost at home to Fiorentina on Saturday to stay third on 50 points. Napoli, who host AC Milan on Sunday evening, are 16 points clear at the top.

In La Liga, Karim Benzema scored three goals in seven first-half minutes as Real Madrid thrashed Real Valladolid 6-0 to cut Barcelona's lead down to 12 points.

The hat-trick moved Benzema up to 14 league goals this season and second on the list of