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Ibra: PSG win over Kiev ‘a statement’ to Europe

Swedish star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic said his French team Paris Saint-Germain had sent out a message to the rest of the continent after their 4-1 thumping of Dynamo Kiev in their opening Champions League group game on Tuesday.

Ibra: PSG win over Kiev 'a statement' to Europe

Ibrahimovic’s early penalty set PSG on their way to the three points against the Ukrainians, with Thiago Silva, Alex and Javier Pastore also on target for the hosts and Miguel Veloso grabbing a consolation for Dynamo.

Yuri Semin’s side were poor, and PSG will undoubtedly face stiffer tests if they are to progress in Europe this season, but Ibrahimovic insisted the Ligue 1 club deserved all the credit for winning in such fashion.

“To win 4-1 looks easy but it wasn’t easy,” said the Swede, who was in a relaxed mood after the game, having scored his 29th goal in the competition with a sixth different club, despite not having produced his best performance, in his own eyes.

“After the game people look at it and say the opponents were not good, but I think we made them look bad. It doesn’t mean they are a bad team.”

“We will take this confidence for the next game. When you play in the Champions League you grow as a team and also as an individual. This is a statement to France and the rest of Europe that Paris has quality and big potential to do something important.”

The former Barcelona and AC Milan man said that winning the group was not the most important thing, as long as PSG progress, but admitted that “after this result people are getting big hopes and putting us up there as one of the favourites.”

PSG now travel to Portugal in a fortnight to face Porto, who also won in their opening Group A game, 2-0 at Dinamo Zagreb thanks to goals from former Marseille midfielder Lucho Gonzalez and the Belgian Steven Defour.

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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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