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.