Mjallby looks to Ibrahimovic to inspire Sweden

Johan Majallby is looking for Zlatan Ibrahimovic to outmuscle Ronaldo tonight in the battle of the Superpowers for a place in Brazil.

The Celtic assistant manager captained Sweden in the 2002 World Cup finals where a young Ibrahimovic teamed up with Henrik Larsson in the Swedish attack.

Ronaldo was the match winner in the first leg in Lisbon with a late header but the stage is set tonight for an almighty performance from Ibrahimovic to take Sweden all the way to the World Cup Finals.

“We hope to see more of Zlatan, he was a wee bit of a disappointment in the first match,” Mjallby said.

“Portugal shackled him well but we expect more from Zlatan, he is a world class player on his day.”

Ronaldo was involved in a flashpoint with Mikael Lustig during the first match with the Real Madrid hero attempting to head-butt the Swedish defender.

That show of frustration was typical of Ronaldo with Mjallby under no illusions about how best to deal with Portugal’s biggest threat.

“I expect a physical game, Sweden doubled up on Ronaldo in the first game and will have to do that again,” the Celtic No. 2 added.

“If you give him too much space he’ll hurt you because he is a world class player. Mikael Lustig and Seb Larsson doubled up on Cristiano, they didn’t give him much space, he got a wee bit frustrated and started to drift inside and play more central where he was more of a threat.

“At home we want to be pushing forward and attack. It’ll be tough because we never scored in the first game but I still think that we have a great chance of going through.”