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ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC

Ibrahimovic aiming to shoot down Spain

Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic broke his two-year goal drought in the yellow shirt before insisting he wants to fire his side into the Euro 2008 quarter-finals with a win over Spain on Saturday.

Ibrahimovic aiming to shoot down Spain

The 26-year-old Inter Milan forward has suffered with a knee injury recently, but ignored any ill-effects to unleash Sweden’s first goal in Tuesday night’s 2-0 win over defending champions Greece in Salzburg.

It was his first international goal since October 2005.

Group D rivals Spain also got off to a winning start with a 4-1 demolition of Russia on Tuesday and Ibrahimovic says Sweden will go hard out for a win when the sides clash in Innsbruck on Saturday with a last-eight place at stake.

“Spain are a very strong opponent, they are favorites to win the tournament,” he said at Sweden’s Euro 2008 base here.

“I saw part of their game, they played very technical football, the type I love to play.

“It will be a great and important game, we are very focused. We want to win, we would never play to draw a game.”

Ibrahimovic said his sore knee was not proving to be a problem.

“The knee is a little bit swollen, it is not painful, it is not as bad as I thought it would be,” he said.

And Swedish coach Lars Lagerbäck was pleased his star striker had come through the game against Greece.

“He has not played 90 minutes for a long time, he did well,” said the coach.

“I hope we will confirm against Spain that we are a very solid team and one of the favourites to win the European title.”

FOOTBALL

Zlatan statue loses nose in latest Malmö vandalism

The statue of Zlatan Ibrahimovic in Malmö has suffered its latest damage in a string of attacks by vandals.

Zlatan statue loses nose in latest Malmö vandalism
Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

During Saturday night or in the early hours of Sunday, the nose was sawed off the Zlatan statue and the effigy was also covered in silver paint, media including SVT report.

Since being unveiled in the presence of the world-famous footballer in October, the statue has been damaged on several occasions.

At the end of November, Zlatan announced his investment in rival team Hammarby, angering many fans of his hometown club Malmö FF.

READ ALSO: How Malmö fell out of love with Zlatan Ibrahimovic

December has already seen paint poured over the statue and a foot sawn off, with this weekend’s incident adding to the list of crunching tackles against the Zlatan statue.

Police said on Sunday they would investigate the latest instance of vandalism.

“We have not received any reports but have been informed that damage has been seen by the public. We will go out there and make observations this morning,” Katarina Rusin, a press spokesperson for the police in the southern Sweden region, told SVT.

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