Zlatan Ibrahimovic's fourth goal for Sweden tonight involved a hasty clearance from Joe Hart landing behind the striker. He twisted his body to meet the goal and then hit a bicycle kick from a full twenty-five yards that arched over Hart and into the net. It's pointless to try to assign superlatives to a goal like this. It is the type of strike that leaves you breathless, shaking your head and laughing incredulously. It's the type of goal that would seem outlandish on FIFA 13. You would reach for the reset switch if by some combination of buttons you managed to lob a goalkeeper from outside the box with an over head kick. Just think about that, lobbing a goalkeeper from outside the box with an overhead kick.
How exactly does it enter someone's head in that situation that the best course of action is an overhead kick here? That is what we cherish about Ibrahimovic, he's unconventional, cocky and sometimes maddening. He has never dined at Lionel Messi's or Cristiano Ronaldo's top table but neither of those two would be capable of what Zlatan did tonight.
Yet, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that if a goal this unlikely was to be scored it was Ibrahimovic that scored it. Goals from crazy angles involving ridiculous feats like flying backheels are the staple of the sometimes volatile Ibra diet. He's different, and that is what makes him compelling, that is what makes him capable of astounding things like this.
For some unknown reason he still has his detractors despite an incredible goalscoring record in Italy and a sack full of Serie A winners medals. Many of Fleet street's finest tweeted earlier that England fans in their usual banterish way were serenading Ibra with the chant "You're just a shit Andy Carroll". No, he's just a brilliant Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
