I lived a dream – Ibrahimovic
Paris Saint-Germain coach Laurent Blanc heaped praise on his players after they thrashed Malmo 5-0 in the Champions League.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic hailed his great relationship with Malmo supporters after he scored in Paris Saint-Germain's 5-0 thrashing of the club where his storied career began.
The Sweden star, who began his career at Malmo in 1999 before going on to enjoy a career as one of the world's best players, scored PSG's third goal of a one-sided contest at Swedbank Stadion.
Ibrahimovic, who paid for 10,000 Malmo fans to be able to watch the game from a fan park outside the stadium, was given a standing ovation when he was substituted late in the game.
"I lived a dream tonight, coming back," he said.
"On top of that I scored one. I'm very happy. Since the beginning, there's a great relationship between Malmo's fans and me."
PSG coach Laurent Blanc heaped praise on Adrien Rabiot and Angel Di Maria, who scored early on for the visitors, before Ibrahimovic and Lucas Moura added further goals either side of Di Maria grabbing a second.
"In 15 minutes, we were able to adjust the game since we scored two goals," said Blanc.
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"At this time, our opponents realised that it would be difficult to thwart our plans. Adrien has great potential, it is still very young but growing tremendously.
"Di Maria is not only skilled with the ball, but he can also score goals."
The result secured PSG's qualification for the last 16 of the Champions League as runners up to Real Madrid in Group A, and Blanc expects a tough draw in the knockout stages.
"When discussing pregame, I said that we were happy about that, but the important thing was to get our qualification for the knockout stages," he added.
"We will see the draw. It will not be easy. Since there will be many Germans and Spaniards, we could face a German or Spanish team.
"The main thing is done. Now everyone is waiting for us in February, March and April. We'll be there, hopefully with the best possible squad."