In his younger days, Zlatan Ibrahimovic would deliver three or four of these per season. Now, he’s a more cultured sort. For both club and country, he’s a trequartista, creating plays more often than he’s finishing them. As we saw with Sweden this summer, he spends much of his time playing away from the defense.
The same was true yesterday at the Parc de Princes, with Ibrahimovic spending most of PSG’s Ligue 1 opener trying to set up Ezequiel Lavezzi and Jeremy Menez. But as with the case at Milan, where he fully embraced his playmaking future, Zlatan still needed to deliver the key goals.
That’s the context for this clip: Free-spending Paris Saint-Germain has given up two first half goals to FC Lorient, and after near-20 minutes of second half pressure, Ligue 1’s favorites were still looking for their first goal of the season.
Then, the most simple of plays: Get the ball to Ibra. Watch what he does:
You can get more on Ibra and PSG’s opening round performance in yesterday’s Offshore Drilling.
Ibrahimovic went on a slot home an 89th minute penalty, beating Fabien Audard despite the keeper guessing correctly. His second half double pulled PSG even, allowing the Parisians to avoid a second consecutive opening round loss to Lorient.
