The fallen giant

Ibrahimovic continues to fluff lines on Europe’s big stage

PARIS: Zlatan Ibrahimovic (pic) can expect to face further scrutiny when Paris St Germain attempt to reach the Champions League semi-finals next week after the Swedish striker struggled to shine in a 2-2 home draw against Manchester City.

The outspoken forward said recently that PSG did not exist before Qatar Sports Investment took over the year before he joined them in 2012, conveniently forgetting that the French club reached the last four of the competition in 1995.

After Wednesday’s lacklustre first leg performance, PSG appear closer to a fourth consecutive quarter-final exit than a maiden semi-final spot under their wealthy Qatari owners and Ibrahimovic is partially to blame for the predicament.

With the tie still scoreless, Ibrahimovic saw his 14th-minute penalty well saved by Joe Hart and shortly afterwards, curled a shot over the bar when he was clean through with only the City goalkeeper to beat.

“We made unusual mistakes,” coach Laurent Blanc told reporters.

Ibrahimovic, who had not missed a penalty since Sept. 2013, admitted he could have done more to help his side, despite pouncing on a defensive error to level the score at 1-1.

“We made avoidable mistakes,” said Ibrahimovic, who has scored 30 goals this season.

“There was this penalty that I missed, that’s the way it is.”

Ibrahimovic has played for Ajax, AC Milan, Inter, Juventus and Barcelona yet remains without a Champions League triumph as the 34-year-old continues to find the latter stages of Europe’s elite club competition a tough nut to crack.

Last year, he missed the first leg of the quarter-finals against Barcelona through injury and could do nothing to prevent the Spaniards from cantering to a 2-0 win in the second.

The previous season, he missed the second leg also through injury as Chelsea won 2-0 to advance on away goals after Ibrahimovic failed to score in their 3-1 win at home.

In 2013, he scored in the 2-2 drawn first leg against Barcelona but did not add to his tally in a 1-1 draw in the return fixture at the Nou Camp.

Next Tuesday, he will have another chance to prove his worth in a do-or-die situation for a side he is leaving at the end of the season with the Swede all too aware that he is running out of time to add the Champions League to his many other accolades.

“We don’t have a choice, we’ll have to win in the second leg but maybe that’s the best thing that could happen to us,” club president Nasser al-Khelaifi told reporters.

PSG, however, will still be without the injured Marco Verratti and Javier Pastore, while midfielder Blaise Matuidi and defender David Luiz will miss the game through suspension. — Reuters

We don’t have a choice, we’ll have to win in the second leg but maybe that’s the best thing that could happen to us.