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Ibrahimović and Schöne draw on positives

Zlatan Ibrahimović said Paris Saint-Germain had let an opportunity slip at former club AFC Ajax, whose goalscorer Lasse Schöne pointed to a second-half improvement.

Zlatan Ibrahimović and Paris team-mate David Luiz in Amsterdam
Zlatan Ibrahimović and Paris team-mate David Luiz in Amsterdam ©AFP/Getty Images

Zlatan Ibrahimović concedes Paris failed to take advantage against Ajax
The former Ajax striker says: "We punished them, they punished us back"
Edinson Cavani's early goal cancelled out by Lasse Schöne's fine free-kick
Schöne: "We were sloppy in the first half but better after the break"
Laurent Blanc admits Paris are going through a tough time – but not losing

Zlatan Ibrahimović, Paris forward
We were winning 1-0 and we had a very good opportunity at the beginning of the second half … we missed. They get a goal from a free-kick: 1-1, an away point. Let's see what happens in the next game. We will need to take points there. We had good opportunities to score and didn't. This is the Champions League – the opportunities you get you need to punish the opponent. We punished them once and they punished us back.

It was amazing, fantastic [being back]. It's the third time I have come back here with three different teams. I always felt welcome every time. It was here that everything started. The ArenA is amazing and I always enjoyed playing here, so it was a happy moment.

Lasse Schöne, Ajax midfielder
I saw where the keeper was standing when I took the first free-kick, and thankfully he was a step too far away to prevent it from going in. The second was from further out, and therefore you need a bit of luck to get a swerve on the ball. That worked, but the keeper got his fingers to it and it deflected onto the post. Unfortunately we didn't get the rebound.

We weren't very good in the first half, we were sloppy and didn't threaten their goal enough. But we started better after the break and it was a different story after that. [The coach said] at half-time that we had to just keep going and play more offensively so they couldn't play their own game.

They are a fantastic team with top players who can create a chance out of nothing. You know that beforehand. But we had to keep the faith and not give them too much respect. We knew that if we stuck to our own game plan then we would have the best chance of succeeding, and I think we showed that in the second half.

Laurent Blanc, Paris coach
If we analyse the match and look at the chances we had we can say that we're frustrated, but it was a tough match, especially in the second half. I want to emphasise the fact that Ajax have a lot of quality and have created a lot of problems for us and held on to their playing philosophy.  I've never seen my players like this after a match so i think that this match will help us for future matches.

We came here to get three points, but because of Ajax's qualities that wasn't possible. Maybe we didn't do everything to win the match but the players gave their all. We got one point but we wanted three. Barcelona have got three points already so we have to take three points in the next match and see where we stand.

This is the first time in the group phase that We've not had more ball possession that our opponents; that shows how difficult this match was for us and how well Ajax played. They are very playful and play good football. We're not at our best in the Champions League or the league, we have difficult moments but we're not losing matches. In the near future we will play more in our system. We just have to perform better.

Lasse Schöne celebrates
Lasse Schöne celebrates©AFP/Getty Images

Frank de Boer, Ajax coach
In the first half we didn't play freely enough to do anything against PSG. They didn't have many chances but they were more threatening than us. After the big chance we gave away at the start of the second half I think we threw off our fear. [Half-time substitute Niki] Zimling brought some calmness to the team and we got some closer to the opponents' goal. Then you know that you can have some small chances.

We showed in the second half that we can play good football. In the second half my team threw off their fear and that's what you need to do against such teams. Everyone played well in the second half and we can be happy with a point.

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