Milan’s hopes rest on which Ibrahimovic shows up
Injuries which threatened to deprive them of Alessandro Nesta and Kevin-Prince Boateng seem to have cleared up. First-choice keeperChristian Abbiati has a long-term problem but is fit to play.
At the same time Milan have suddenly found a new partnership up front in Maxi Lopez and the 19-year-old Stephan El Shaarawy.
In last week’s 0-0 draw with Napoli they improved significantly after Zlatan Ibrahimovic was sent off. On Saturday, without the suspended Ibrahimovic, they produced one of their best team efforts of the season to beat Udinese 2-1.
Could Massimo Allegri be tempted to leave his best striker on the bench? Unlikely.
But Ibra-Kadabra as the fans call him is a magician who in big European games has a strange habit of deceiving his own side more than the opposition.
That may seem like a harsh judgment on a player who scored twice the last time he faced Arsenal, the 2-2 draw with Barcelona at the Emirates two years ago.
Yet even then he managed to miss chances a striker of his stature should have scored.
Juventus fans still recall his missed chances when they went out of the Champions League to Arsenal in the 2006 quarter-final, just as Inter fansremember their disappointment against Manchester United and Barcelona fans their frustration with his performance in the semi-final against Inter (subbed after an hour in both legs).
In international matches the Ibrahimovic’s record is also slightly deceptive. To score 28 in 74 games is more than respectable, but 10 came in five matches against Malta and San Marino.
For all that he is Sweden’s talisman, and six-time winner of their player of the year award, their fans recall a missed penalty against the Netherlands, a goalless World Cup in Germany, and the lack of discipline that cost him his place a year later.
His run-ins with Swedish journalists are legendary — he has never quite forgiven Aftonbladet, their top-selling tabloid, for publishing a fake lonely-hearts advert after he revealed he might be looking for a girlfriend.
Ibrahimovic is an enigma. Alongside that iffy record in Europe he has the unique distinction of winning eight consecutive league titles in three countries with five different clubs. Even if the two Juventus titles were subsequently revoked because of Italy’s match-fixing scandal, it is a record that reflects his consistency, as a creator of goals as well as a scorer.
His goals won Roberto Mancini and Inter the title in 2008 and in Jose Mourinho’s first season at the club he was Italy’s top scorer with 25 goals in 35 league games.
Mourinho’s demanding approach brought the best out of Ibrahimovic and he admitted he needed it.
“If you don’t have someone to motivate you then you aren’t determined to fight. That’s why coaches exist, and I would have killed for Mourinho.”
Perhaps there is a need for a steadying influence. Unlike the vast majority of players Ibrahimovic shares his life with a woman 10 years his senior. Helena Seger is an economics graduate and marketing manager as well as the mother of their two young children.
Wherever he’s been — Ajax, Juventus, Inter, Barcelona and now Milan – Ibrahimovic has scored spectacular goals, sometimes acrobatic strikes that come from the Taekwondo he learned growing up in Malmo. Those size 12 feet also help.
But his size and athleticism seem to drain him both physically and mentally. He seems to struggle for fitness from February onwards, which may explain his poor record in the Champions League knock-out stages. And that struggle may partly explain the petulance and violence that has marred his career.
He has lashed out at colleagues as well as opponents, most notoriously at Rafael van der Vaart in a Netherlands-Sweden game which led his Ajax team-mate to accuse Ibrahimovic of a deliberate attempt to hurt him. Last season he was Milan’s best player until he was sent off twice in quick succession, first for punching an opponent in the midriff, the second for insulting a linesman.
Most recently he was dismissed for a ridiculous slap in the match against Napoli and was fortunate to escape punishment for a similar gesture three days later at the end of the cup tie against Juventus.
His talent should make him one of Europe’s finest players but his temperament is often his undoing. Which Ibrahimovic turns up could well decide this tie.
