Football
Memorable moments: like Maradona! Ibrahimovic shames the Breda defence with a fantastic solo in an Ajax jersey
There’s probably no football fan who doesn’t know his name. During his active career, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has become a true icon who has played for several big clubs and scored many beautiful goals. Ibrahimovic scored one of them in the Ajax jersey when he put the opponent’s defence to shame in a match against Breda.
There is probably no football fan who doesn’t know his name. During his active career, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has become a true icon who has played for several big clubs and scored many beautiful goals. Ibrahimovic scored one of them in the Ajax jersey when he put the opponent’s defence to shame in a match against Breda.
It was 22 August 2004, when Ajax took on Breda in the second round of the Dutch top flight. And thanks to Ibrahimovic, this match entered the history of European football.
Ajax were coached by Ronald Koeman at the time, with his charges initially losing the match. In the 11th minute, Yuri Cornelisse opened the scoring and sent Breda into the lead.
Three minutes later, however, Ibrahimovic scored to level the match at 1-1. Before the end of the first half, Ajax took the lead, with Mike Zonneveld scoring to make it 2-1. However, the goal carousel didn’t come until the second act.
The home team scored four goals in the second 45 minutes. Johnny Heitinga started it all in the 51st minute, and 19 minutes later Wesley Sneijder made it 4:1. But then came the moment when Ibrahimovic stole everyone’s attention for himself.
In the 76th minute, the Swedish goalscorer toyed with the Breda defence in this way, overcoming five defending players and scoring his second goal of the game after an action that would put even the famous Diego Maradona to shame.
In addition to the two goals, he also assisted four times and was involved in every Ajax goal. The home side beat Breda 6:2. You can see Ibrahimovic’s amazing feat for yourself in the video below.
However, there is one controversial event tied to this match. The legendary Swede’s teammate at the time, Rafael van der Vaart, was unable to take part in the match due to an injury. And he blamed Ibrahimovic, who allegedly deliberately injured him during a training session.
The Ajax striker was booed by the fans when he took the field, as Van der Vaart was their favourite. It should be noted, in the video, his reaction after the amazing solo is clearly visible.
But Ibrahimovic later admitted that he didn’t really care about upsetting his former teammate. In fact, he signed a contract at Juventus Turin in the following days.
