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Martin O'Neill has said Republic of Ireland must find a way of keeping Zlatan Ibrahimovic quiet if they are to get anything from their opening Euro 2016 fixture against Sweden. Four years ago in Poland, Ireland's campaign got off to the worst possible start when they were beaten 3-1 by Croatia in their first game. And O'Neill knows his team's best chance of avoiding a similar result this time could rest with how well they control Ibrahimovic's influence on the game. The manager said: "He's a very good player. Great players find ways of extricating themselves from situations if they are being tightly marked, and Ibrahimovic comes into that category. "He has been a very fine player for a long time, he has faced those sort of situations before in his time. We need to be very careful -- and I'm hoping that Sweden will be careful with one or two of our players. "We will have to play very, very strongly in the match. It's a big game for us. Ibrahimovic is a terrific footballer and, there's no question about it, a talisman of Sweden. "But they have got some other very fine players playing as well, so it's a tough game for us. But we want to make it as tough as possible for them." Alongside Ireland and Sweden in Group E are much-fancied Belgium and an Italy side with a track record of tournament success. That means the Republic's opening fixture could be crucial, and O'Neill said: "I was speaking to [Sweden manager] Erik Hamren not so long ago and I think that if we were realistic about this, he would probably be targeting the game against us as one that he thinks he can win. We are going in with exactly the same approach. "We feel as if it's a very important game, not only because it's the first match but also because maybe we are the lower-ranked teams and it would be nice to get off to a decent start."
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