The Portugal vs Sweden play-offs is being billed as the encounter between Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who are regarded as some of the best players in the world. Portugal manager Paulo Bento, though, has stated that his team cannot entirely focused on keeping Ibrahimovic quiet because Sweden has quality across the pitch to be able to score goals without the big PSG striker. Ibrahimovic has represented some of the biggest clubs in the world like Barcelona, AC Milan, Juventus, and Inter Milan.

He has also won league titles in several different countries, while he has been on a scoring spree with PSG this season. He has already scored some spectacular goals. Even though he is not able to rival Cristiano Ronaldo’s goalscoring feats with Real Madrid, Ibrahimovic is definitely in a league of his own according to Bento. He has stated that the 32-year-old is a player of ‘extraordinary quality’. Ibrahimovic has been spoken about as a potential rival for Ronaldo at the FIFA Ballon d’Or award. The Real Madrid man has emerged as favourite to win this award ahead of Lionel Messi.

Ronaldo has already won the award back in 2008 when he was with Manchester United, but he has failed to repeat the feat since moving to Madrid.

“Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a great player, he’s also in a great moment with his club. He is extraordinary. For us, to try and stop this player we have to make a collective effort and not just be aware of the individual. We need to understand the organisation of Sweden and, on the top of everything, play our game. I think it is natural that sometimes the performance is not the same for the national team compared to the club,” said Bento. Portugal will play against Sweden in a two legged play-offs to reach the World Cup 2014.