Ibrahimovic keeps United fans waiting

Republic of Ireland and Sweden aim to steal a march on Belgium and Italy in the “Group of Death”, as they get the ball rolling in Group E in the French capital on Monday.

“What I do every day is play football”. The Norwich midfielder made no mistake with his chance, swivelling beautifully to strike the ball on the half-volley past the diving keeper. We didn’t do that, and we have regrets about that.

The Irish contingent erupted, although their cheers very almost died in their throats within two minutes when Clark hacked an attempted clearance towards his own goal to force Randolph into his first real save of the game.

“It is disappointing that we were not able to play at the level that we are capable of doing in the first 50 minutes”.

‘I have the greatest pressure on my shoulders, ‘ he said. It seems to regularly be the case and while it will leave manager Martin O’Neill talking about the positives of not losing and setting a tone, it will also leave the nation pondering the what ifs and, more importantly, the what now.

Yesterday’s pre-match press conference saw the cocksure striker declare himself “a legend” who “always delivers” and pronounced himself pleased that Roy Keane agreed he was a genius.

Contrary to the hostile behavior of United Kingdom and Russian supporters that have already earned the nations warnings of disqualification, Swedish and Irish fans have already started celebrating together in Paris. “What happens on the pitch is what matters, it’s all about the 90 minutes”.

Two minutes after the start of the second half, the men in green got a deserved goal.

“It’s a fantastic cross from Seamus”, Hoolahan said after scoring the third global goal of his career.

Both teams battled hard to find the victor in the closing stages of the encounter but in the end had to settle for a point each. “We will look forward to playing Belgium next, watch tonight and see how it goes”.

“We also talked about being better at winning second balls”. The 35-year-old O’Shea failed to follow Germany’s Shkodran Mustafi and Spain’s Gerard Pique as central defenders scoring key opening goals in a third straight Euro 2016 match. But they’ll need everybody fit to have any chance of getting through.

Shane Long came agonisingly close on 29 minutes after the Swedish defence couldn’t close him down quick enough to prevent an excellent shot from the edge of the area which sailed agonisingly close to the crossbar, Isaksson comfortably beaten. There was one smart lay off for a Jeff Hendrick shot in the first half but beyond that his own impact in front of goal was limited to a missed headed opportunity.

They had been dominant for so long in the match, and had too little to show at the final whistle.

Though Ibrahimovic has scored two goals at each Euro tournament since 2004, Sweden has advanced from its group just once.