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Ibrahimovic aiming to shoot down Spain

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
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.

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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."

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