Remember when villainous Real Madrid chief Florentino Perez said football would be better if matches were shorter? Well, he could've been on to something.

Udinese and Roma made Serie A history on Thursday by battling it out in a never-before-seen 18-minute match, and boy was it a corker. The reason for the matchlet was because their original encounter on April 14 was abandoned on 72 minutes when Roma defender Evan Ndicka collapsed on the pitch and was taken to hospital.

In an unprecedented turn of events, the teams were allowed to play out the final stages of the fixture nearly two weeks later, rather than having to play the entire 90 minutes again, as is customary in most leagues.

The score was tied at 1-1, with Romelu Lukaku cancelling out Roberto Pereyra's first half opener in the original game. Strangely, both teams were allowed to pick different players, providing they weren't substituted off in the first 72 minutes.

It initially looked as if the tie would end in a stalemate, only for Roma's Bryan Cristante to leap highest and head home from a 95th-minute corner, sparking pandemonium on the Roma bench.

Would you buy a ticket to an 18-minute match? Let us know in the comment section below.

The win keeps Roma firmly in the hunt for a top four spot. Daniele De Rossi's men are currently fifth in Serie A, four points behind fourth-placed Bologna with five games to go.

Udinese, meanwhile, are 17th in the table. By conceding a last-gasp winner they missed the chance to move a point clear of the drop-zone, with just goal difference separating them from 18th-placed Frosinone.

Elsewhere, Inter Milan were crowned Serie A champions after beating rivals AC Milan 2-1 at the San Siro on Monday. It means the Nerazzurri have now won 20 league titles (one more than AC Milan), earning themselves a second star on their shirt.