Zlatan ready to Bridge the gap
ZLATAN Ibrahimovic does not have happy memories of Stamford Bridge. And Guus Hiddink has ordered his team to pile on the misery for the Swede tonight.
Sent off last season after just half an hour as Paris Saint- Germain edged out Chelsea in the second round, afterwards labelling Chelsea’s players “babies”, two years ago Ibrahimovic could only watch helpless and injured as the Londoners overturned a 3- 1 fi rst- leg defi cit to secure a shock victory in the quarter- fi nals.
PSG’s iconic leader scored his team’s fi rst goal as they won the fi rst leg of this season’s encounter between the two teams 2- 1 – and he announced last night that revenge does not interest him.
But he insisted PSG will hunt down the Champions League trophy remorselessly.
It was two years ago now, in Laurent Blanc’s fi rst season in charge at the Parc des Princes, that PSG met Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea in the last eight. There should have been little doubt about the outcome after the French side comfortably won the fi rst game in Paris but Eden Hazard’s penalty proved to be a crucial away goal.
In the return leg at Stamford Bridge, it was one of those nights when Chelsea summoned up the indomitable spirit that has so often seen them through in this competition.
Some say it was drilled into them in Mourinho’s fi rst spell in charge and has never been lost. Whatever its origins, it was present that night as Chelsea pulled a goal back through Andre Schurrle and, three minutes from time, Demba Ba grabbed the goal that sent them through. It prompted a Mourinho sprint to the corner fl ag to celebrate with his players. Despite last season’s victory for PSG, that 2014 result still scars Blanc, who has just signed a new two- year contract to keep him at the club until 2018.
Ibrahimovic, whose own contract runs out this summer and who has been linked with a move to the Premier League, said: “I never think about revenge. Every game is a new one. Hopefully I will stay on the pitch longer than the last time, to have the possibility to do things I’m good at.
“Revenge? Absolutely not. What happened in the past belongs in the past. This is the present.
“As for the babies, let’s see. I’d never seen anything like that before, from mature players like that, I didn’t expect it. But it’s a new game now.”
Ibrahimovic, 34, insisted that, sooner or later, PSG will triumph in the Champions League with the ❑ REAL MADRID huffed, puffed and spluttered before fi nally coming to life with two goals in four minutes midway through the second half to beat Roma 2- 0 and reach the quarter- fi nals 4- 0 on aggregate. Cristiano Ronaldo fi nished off a sparkling run and cross from Lucas Vazquez before becoming provider to set up James Rodriguez for the second.
But it was lucky for Zinedine Zidane’s men that Roma forgot to bring their shooting boots, Mohamed Salah ( twice) and Edin Dzeko wasting simple chances while Diego Perotti hit a post. vast investment that their Qatari owners are putting into the club. For three years in succession they have gone out at the last- eight stage.
“I’m only warming up,” he said. “I don’t believe it’s close to the end of my career. Age is something you can’t fear. It’s just a number. I feel young. I’ve never had better statistics than this season.
“When I was young and talking about the Champions League it was almost an obsession. If I win it I’ll be very happy. This club is a project that began three and a half years ago. This club was born the day the Qataris took over in 2011.
“Chelsea had the same thing 10 years ago and when did they win? Four years ago. What we’ve done is amazing, making such a good team in such a short time.
“You don’t do these miracles in 24 hours. With time they can achieve anything here. There are no limits. They will hunt this Champions League until they get it and they will not stop, with me or without me.
“I wanted to be part of this and to take on this challenge. I want to do things that will be written in history books, individual and collective.”
Blanc said: “Zlatan has been part of the project from day one. The progression in the last four years has been very rapid. But that’s not enough.”