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Not this time, Zlatan: Hart's penalty save has City dreaming of semi-finals

Clive Rose / Getty Images Sport / Getty

The latest weird and wonderful chapter of the Zlatan Ibrahimovic story was published directly to Instagram. There were just a few hours left till kickoff in Paris Saint-Germain’s quarter-final first leg against Manchester City, when a new post appeared on the striker’s account. In it, he appeared to interview himself.

Q: Tonight, it’s time for Champions League as you receive Manchester City at home on Parc des Princes. The other day you got a perfect warm-up by winning 4-1 over league-third Nice, a match where you performed a hat trick. What are your thoughts about the quarterfinal? Zlatan: An important and difficult match. Q: Manchester City eliminated Dynamo Kiev in the previous round, and for the first time in club history they get to play quarterfinals in the Champions League. What do you think of the light-blue team from Manchester? Zlatan: It’s a very good team. Q: City is, just as PSG, a world class team packed with stars. Which City players would have made the PSG starting lineup? Zlatan: They have a good team, and we have a good team. Q: The keeper for Manchester City is Englishman Joe Hart, a player who has conceded beautiful Zlatan goals before. How about adding to his misery tonight? Zlatan: Let’s see what happens.

A photo posted by IAmZlatan (@iamzlatanibrahimovic) on

There were four questions in total, and four very brief answers. Ibrahimovic almost gave the impression of being unimpressed with his own interviewing technique, sidestepping a query about which City players would get into PSG’s starting XI with a vague reply about both of them being good teams.

He saved the best for last, though, in this apparent self-interrogation. "The keeper for Manchester City is Englishman Joe Hart, a player who has conceded beautiful Zlatan goals before," read the final question. "How about adding to his misery tonight?"

Clearly, this was meant to be rhetorical. Ibrahimovic signed off with a simple: "Let’s see what happens."

In the event, there would be no "beautiful Zlatan goals" at the Parc des Princes. But there was a rather shambolic one. Manchester City had only just taken the lead through Kevin De Bruyne when Hart rolled a pass out to Fernando on the edge of the penalty area.

The keeper had signaled immediately for his team-mate to shift the ball out toward the right sideline. Instead, Fernando took a heavy touch in the opposite direction. Ibrahimovic, sensing an opportunity, came rushing on to put the defender under pressure. Fernando’s attempted clearance ricocheted straight back off the striker’s boot and into the unguarded net.

Hart shook his head, bewildered. But in many ways, this was a goal to sum up the evening. This was supposed to be a night of world class football, an occasion to marvel at how much brilliance could be bought through the combined financial might of Abu Dhabi and Qatar. Instead it became a contest to see which team could best avoid shooting itself in the foot.

The tone was set within 15 seconds, when David Luiz allowed Sergio Aguero to get goal-side of him and reacted by hauling the attacker down. That earned the defender a booking, which will keep him out of the second leg.

City was no more assured at the back. Referee Milorad Mazic was perhaps generous to award PSG a penalty when Luiz trailed his leg into Bacary Sagna, but the touch that presented the ball to the Brazilian in the first place was so clumsy as to feel worthy of punishment in itself.

On it went, this back-and-forth of error. Luiz was woefully out of position on City’s first goal, and compounded his mistake by pausing to hang out a heel in a failed attempt to intercept Fernandinho’s pass, when he should have been adjusting as best he could to put De Bruyne under pressure before the Belgian fired into the far corner of the net.

Related: De Bruyne lifting Manchester City to new, lofty levels

Then came Ibra’s equaliser, before Adrien Rabiot put the hosts 2-1 ahead. City pulled level again on what might have been the scrappiest goal of the bunch. Three separate PSG defenders got a touch on Sagna’s cross before it fell to Fernandinho, whose shot bobbled in off Thiago Silva’s bum.

At the end of such a haphazard game of football, it was tempting to shrug and say neither team had been good enough to win. But away goals make this a far better result for City than for PSG. And the truth is that, in amongst the calamity, the Citizens had still benefited from one crucial moment of brilliance. It belonged, of course, to the Englishman Joe Hart.

The City goalkeeper will never be allowed to forget the most ‘beautiful Zlatan goal’ of all, that outlandish 30-yard overhead kick during an international friendly back in 2012. And yet, it bears remembering that Hart had been the one who came out on top when England faced Sweden in the European Championships five months earlier.

And it was he who won the key duel on Wednesday night, saving the penalty that Luiz had earned back when the score was still 0-0. Ibrahimovic has a 90 percent success rate on spot-kicks since the start of this decade, but could not beat Hart from 12 yards. The keeper was decisive in plunging to his right and had enough strength in his wrist to keep the ball out.

Hart’s save denied PSG an early lead that might have set this match on a completely different course. And perhaps it planted a seed of doubt in Ibrahimovic’s mind as well.

Twelve minutes later, the striker was sent clean through on goal after Nicolas Otamendi had given the ball away cheaply in midfield. Ibrahimovic had time and space to think about his shot, and yet fired high and wide of the target. How much had he been influenced by that earlier penalty save, and the thought that Hart would deny him unless he aimed right for the top corner?

Maybe he will ask himself that very question in his next Instagram interview. Or maybe, after tonight, he would prefer not to think too much about Hart at all.

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