4-Star General Zlatan confirms his genius to England

The dust may already be settling on a mere friendly which will record a Swedish win over England by four-goals-to-two in Stockholm.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic salutes the home crowd.

But what'll live long in the memory was the individual brilliance and performance of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Scorer of all four of Sweden’s goals, the final one being so exquisite commentators reached for their thesaurus to describe it adequately.

Having already scored a hat-trick, Zlatan granted himself freedom of the city of Stockholm.

Great players play with freedom when the game is won but even by his lofty standards, his final strike was special.

England keeper Joe Hart came way off his line - off his line? off his line?? he was virtually playing centre-half – but the clearance bounced a mere few yards, so with his back to goal from 30 yards, Ibrahimovic launched himself in the air with a bicycle-kick of such looping precision and accuracy that even Shawcross, England’s last line of defence right on the line, could do nothing about.

VIDEO: This is the goal in Swedish!
AUDIO: Smooth Radio bulletin describing the goal.

As Steven Gerrard celebrating his 100^th cap conceded, “an overhead kick from that distance when the ball is six-feet in the air – only certain players can do that, and he is a special player”.

As for Zlatan, “Magic, magic… haha! How can I do that in a friendly? I just enjoyed it”.

It ranks as one of the great goals scored in recent decades - right up there with David Beckham's last-ditch free-kick against Greece to secure England's place at the World Cup, Rooney's bicycle kick in the Manchester derby and Di Canio's scissor kick for West Ham in the Premier League.

Gracious Gerrard confirmed he'd held on to his England shirt. Instead of giving it away to an opposing player, he's giving it to his father, Paul.

Ibrahimovic has often struggled to perform at club level against English sides - but that's to ignore his overall record and the who's who array of clubs he's played for. Both Milan clubs, Barcelona and Ajax to name but four.

It's a shame he never played in the Premier League and Paris St. Germain's gain is someone like Tottenham or Manchester City's loss.

England show drive and character to overturn the Swedes

I suppose we shouldn't grumble at winning 3-2, but I hope lessons arising from this lacklustre game aren't lost in the afterglow of victory. We can't win Euro 2012 playing like that.

When the press reported England's desire to attack and skipper Steven Gerrard declared the Swedes weren't as good as France, I sensed danger.

And so it came to pass. The gameplan was ripped up soon after the restart as Sweden equalised a first half header by Andy Carroll.

England didn't seem to budget for Sweden's do-or-die approach: if they didn't get anything from the game, they'd be going home.

I've said it many times. The Premier League wastes so much of the valuable resource of older players in its relentless hunt for youth. This time it was to be costly for England as ex-Villa ace Olof Mellberg terrorised our defence with a hand, head and boot in both Swedish strikes.

To fall behind with half an hour left was clumsy. Luckily, we have experience even in our young players. Walcott came off the bench, scored one and set up the other for Welbeck to turn the game around. The Arsenal player exorcised bad England memories of the past with his display.

All three England goals were superb: Carroll was selected precisely for his physical presence: we needed someone upfront as big as the Swedes were! A real battering ram and he enjoyed himself in the role.

Walcott looked surprised that his long range shot looped in: it even wrong footed their keeper, Isaksson.

And Welbeck cleverly used his body to shield the ball from the close attentions of the defender, audaciously backheeling the winner.

Another goal and we'd have topped the group and England tried to get it. That perhaps was gung-ho as we surrendered possession all too often when we should have defended our slender hold on a shapeless game.

So England need a point against Ukraine to reach the quarter finals. I don't want to sound dowdy but we must remember our drills and maintain more discipline. Any team we face in Europe could bury us in a heartbeat. So let's use Ukraine to develop our flow and secure a result on firmer ground.

Wayne Rooney's back too. Come on England!