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It had been roughly 70 minutes into the Milan Derby and his team was clinging to a 2-1 lead as Milan manager Stefano Pioli approached the edge of the technical area and asked his center forward how much longer he thought he would. he could stay out. the tone.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who had delivered both of Milan’s goals over a three-minute span in the first half, looked up at the band, opened his fist and mouthed “five minutes.”
Pioli sent substitute forward Lorenzo Colombo to warm up. The 18-year-old was not born when Ibrahimovic scored his first international goal for Sweden, back in 2001. If he listened carefully, he could hear the sound of Rossoneri fingers crossed.
Twenty-six minutes later, the final whistle sounded. Needless to say, Colombo never came. Ibrahimovic had taken a full 98 minutes, counting the injury time, from his 39-year-old body; a body that, let’s not forget, surpassed COVID-19 just over a week ago.
– Replay of Inter vs. Milan on ESPN + (US only)
– FC Daily team discuss weekend action (US)
On this day, he made a difference, sealing Milan’s victory and sending them to the top of the Serie A table with four wins out of four.
“I was completely exhausted,” Pioli said afterward. “He asked me to leave, but I just ignored him …”
Time is undefeated. We have said it many times. You can’t leave it behind. But if you’re smart, and at this stage in his career, Ibrahimovic is very smart, sometimes you can confuse Father Time and do magic in more moments like this.
It’s not just about his two goals. The former saw him win a penalty by advancing on Aleksandar Kolarov and drawing the foul with his powerful choppy dribble. After Samir Handanovic saved the first effort, Ibrahimovic picked up the rebound and scored the goal. The second saw him detach from his marker at the far post, generating space through time and experience, then converting Rafael Leao’s center.
You want to rule them out because, hey, it’s Kolarov? A good player, sure, but one who is close to 35 years old and probably not a central defender, even in defense? Sure, go ahead. But if you watched the game, you will also know that Ibrahimovic targeted Kolarov at all times, choosing to face him physically, rather than Stefan de Vrij, who, in terms of muscle and mass, is a much closer match.
That’s the difference between the cunning old Alpha wolf and the young Alpha wolf. The latter would choose to pick the strongest and healthiest male to show the herd who is in charge, but the former exploits the weakness, knowing that the goal is not to prove a point, it is to win the battle. And a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
Ibrahimovic’s game was not about the things he can no longer do. It was about maximizing the things he could do. It was the perpetual exit when Milan could not play from behind, head or carry it to the chest and then distribute with precision and determination. At one point, he plunged into his old Tae Kwon Do black belt playbook, spearing a ball in midair at head level, twisting his body like an action figure.
If you put the right pieces around him, his powers will only multiply. He was never a sprinter, although once the long limbs move he covers a lot of ground surprisingly fast, but that matters little with speed traders like Theo Hernandez, Alexis Saelemakers and Rafael Leao all around him. They are the delivery drivers, he is the distribution center.
At the end of the game, with an empty tank and heavy limbs, Ibrahimovic was still doing little things to help his team. Unable to press, he found a way to extend his long, cartoonish telescopic leg to intercept a ball and disrupt Inter’s build-up. Moments later, he trotted up the right touchline to support his teammates and converted a dunked fumble into a pass without looking down the wing, which ate up precious seconds.
Those are the physical things that we can see and record. The metaphysical impact – the confidence you give to your younger teammates, the intimidation of opponents, the human lightning rod factor – is harder to measure.
Last month, after scoring two goals on the opening match against Bologna, he said: “I scored [only] two because I am [nearly] 40 … if I were 20, I would have scored four. “
Yes, but only if you were 20 with the mind you have now. Because when I was that age, I didn’t score four goals in a game. In fact, the year he turned 20 he scored six times in 24 appearances for Ajax which, given what we’ve come to expect of him, was clearly different from Zlatan.
There will come a point where Milan will have to stop playing, a point where their presence will slow down the growth of this young team. However, we have not yet arrived. Right now, Milan need this version of Ibrahimovic: the wise Ibrahimovic, the first in the team Ibrahimovic, injured and drenched in blood, but still hungry, Ibrahimovic. Like the self portrait that posted on his Twitter account, shortly after the final whistle.
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