Football
ESPN staff 8y

Zlatan Ibrahimovic: 'New system' doomed PSG in defeat to Man City

Zlatan Ibrahimovic blamed the tactics of his coach Laurent Blanc after Paris Saint-Germain crashed out of the Champions League on Tuesday.

PSG were held without a goal as Manchester City keeper Joe Hart did well to deny their striker Ibrahimovic and preserve a 3-2 aggregate victory.

Ibrahimovic said he felt PSG remained the superior side, but their failure to adjust to a change in strategy ultimately doomed them at the Etihad Stadium.

"In the first half we played with a new system and what happened, happened," the Sweden captain said. "If it had gone well, nobody would say anything, and now people will say we gave it away.

"The second half was better, when we reverted to our normal tactics, but we gave away two games.

"I think we are a better team, but we lost tonight and we drew 2-2 at home, so all the best to Manchester City."

PSG were without the suspended Blaise Matuidi and David Luiz, while Marco Verratti missed out with a groin injury as they lost 1-0 in Manchester.

Blanc -- who was backed by captain Thiago Silva and club president Nasser Al Khelaifi -- admitted Manchester City deserved to go through.

"We weren't clinical both this evening and in Paris," the manager said. "We scored two goals in Paris, we had the chances to score more, we should have done and didn't."

"That has an impact on the return game. City has an advantage. We lost a couple of players to suspension as well. We weren't efficient enough in either game.

"I think City were a lot more clinical and efficient and that is why they earned the qualification. They were a good team, not particularly spectacular, but they got the job done. They were good in defence, very compact, even though that wasn't the case in the first leg."

PSG have already secured their fourth straight Ligue 1 title, but the club were hoping to improve their performance in Europe, and Blanc was upset to fall short of expectations.

"When you don't go through to the next round you regret absolutely everything," he said. "Of course when you win no one asks any questions.

"We had certain tactics and strategies in mind but we couldn't always implement them as efficiently as we wanted over the two games. We have shown our limitations over the two games, both tactically and technically.

"What we did over the course of the tie wasn't enough and we very much regret that.

"We thought we were going to cause them more problems tonight but they were good in defence and very compact. Over the course of the two games, we understand that City probably deserved to qualify.

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