Ibrahimovic: City have fantastic players

Zlatan Ibrahimovic believes Manchester City have the quality to hurt Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.

City travel to the French capital on Wednesday for the first leg of their maiden quarter-final tie in Europe’s premier competition on the back of an inconsistent campaign domestically.

Ibrahimovic is likely to provide PSG’s major threat in the tie, with the 34-year-old striker boasting 38 goals from 41 appearances this term.

Famously outspoken when it comes to the merits of opposing teams and players, Ibrahimovic gave credit to City – likening their development under the ownership of Sheikh Mansour to PSG’s after his own club were bought by Qatar Sports Investments in 2011.

He identified Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Yaya Toure as key performers for Manuel Pellegrini’s side, although his former Barcelona team-mate Toure is an injury doubt for Wednesday’s match.

“They are a similar project to PSG with a few more years of experience,” the Sweden international told UEFA.com.

“They are a good team, a very good team. They have had a lot of success in the years since the project began and they have fantastic individual players.

“I played with Yaya Toure. I like him, I like him a lot. And then you have Silva, Aguero – the whole team is strong. You don’t watch out for one [particular player], you need to watch out for the team.”

Ibrahimovic has confirmed his intention to end a trophy-laden spell at PSG when his contract expires at the end of the current campaign.

But, despite already having the Ligue 1 title in the bag, he is fully focused on the task at hand against City and feels in prime form having scored in both legs to knock out Chelsea in the previous round.

“I am coming into the quarter-finals very relaxed,” he said. “The game is obviously pretty important for everybody – for me, for the club, for the city, for the country – but I am pretty relaxed and confident.

“I feel fresh – physically I feel good, very focused and confident.”