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Background: Ibrahimović's Malmö reunion

Zlatan Ibrahimović began his illustrious career with Malmö and the striker comes up against his old side as Paris Saint-Germain embark on another tilt at European glory.

Malmö need no reminding of Zlatan Ibrahimović's scoring power
Malmö need no reminding of Zlatan Ibrahimović's scoring power ©AFP/Getty Images

Zlatan Ibrahimović faces his home-town club as Paris Saint-Germain embark on another tilt at European glory with a home game against Malmö FF.

• Ibrahimović signed for Malmö in 1996, making his senior debut three years later. After 16 goals in 40 league appearances he began his globetrotting tour of Europe's elite, joining AFC Ajax in 2001.

Match background

Paris
• The French club, who won all four domestic trophies last season, are unbeaten in their four fixtures against Swedish opponents, recording three wins and a draw.

• Paris are in their eighth group stage campaign, going out in the quarter-finals in each of the past three seasons. Their sole semi-final appearance came in 1994/95.

• Last season, Laurent Blanc's side won all three of their home group games before drawing 1-1 against Chelsea FC in the round of 16, going on to win the tie on away goals. They then lost 3-1 at home to FC Barcelona in the quarter-final first leg (1-5 overall).

• That defeat was their first at the Parc des Princes in 34 European home games (22 wins, 11 draws) since a 4-2 loss to Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC in the UEFA Cup group stage in November 2006.

• Twelve months ago the French side began with a 1-1 draw away to Ajax which halted a run of four successive wins on matchday one in the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League. They last lost on opening night in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup, going down 3-1 at FC Schalke 04.

Malmö
• The Swedish champions are in the UEFA Champions League group stage for a second successive season having made their debut in 2014/15.

• The Himmelsblått beat Celtic FC 2-0 at home in the play-off second leg to advance 4-3 on aggregate. They also lost the away leg in the third qualifying round against FC Salzburg but a 3-0 home win saw them through 3-2 on aggregate. In the second qualifying round a 1-0 second-leg win at VMFD Žalgiris was enough for them to advance after a 0-0 home draw.

• Malmö have won two of their four games against Ligue 1 sides, losing 4-3 on aggregate to RC Lens in the 1977/78 UEFA Cup first round despite a 2-0 home second-leg victory but beating AS Monaco 1-0 overall at the same stage of the following season's European Champion Clubs' Cup.

• Malmö, European Cup runners-up in 1979, have finished fourth on the two previous occasions they reached a UEFA competition group stage. In last season's Group A they lost all three away games, their only points coming via a 2-0 win against Olympiacos FC in their first home game. In the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League they finished bottom after one draw and five defeats.

Coach and player links
• Johan Wiland, Markus Rosenberg, Tobias Sana and Anton Tinnerholm have played together for Sweden with Zlatan Ibrahimović.

• Rosenberg played for the same junior Malmö side as Ibrahimović. A year younger than most of the team, Rosenberg mostly played at right-back in those days.

• Goalkeeping coach Jonnie Fedel was Malmö's regular keeper when Ibrahimović played for the team.

• Oscar Lewicki scored twice in Sweden's 4-1 home victory (agg: 4-3) in the UEFA Under-21 European Championship play-off against France for whom Layvin Kurzawa scored. Pa Konate also played for the victorious home side in the Halmstad fixture on 14 October 2014.

• As France coach, Blanc lost 2-0 against Sweden in a UEFA EURO 2012 group fixture in Kyiv. Rosenberg and Wiland were on the bench.

Match facts

Paris 
• Serge Aurier is suspended on matchday one.

• Paris won 13 successive Ligue 1 matches prior to Friday's 2-2 draw with FC Girondins de Bordeaux, one shy of the record set by their opponents, then coached by Blanc, between March and August 2009.

• Ibrahimović is three goals away from Pauleta's club record tally of 109.

• Edinson Cavani has scored 14 goals in his last 12 Ligue 1 outings.

• Javier Pastore (calf) has been out since being substituted nine minutes into Paris's 1-0 victory at Montpellier Hérault SC on 21 August.

• Thiago Motta extended his contract by a year, until June 2017, on 28 August.

• Kevin Trapp did not concede in his first five appearances for Paris, including the French Super Cup triumph over Olympique Lyonnais on 1 August.

• Ezequiel Lavezzi scored two goals in Argentina's 7-0 friendly win against Bolivia on 4 September. Three days later, Blaise Matuidi was on target twice as France defeated Serbia 2-1 in a Bordeaux friendly.

Malmö
• Malmö have lost four of their 23 Allsvenkan fixtures in 2015 – as many defeats as they suffered last term, when they won the title.

• Jo Inge Berget scored his first goal for Norway as they beat Croatia 2-0 in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying on 6 September.

• Kári Árnason helped Iceland to a 1-0 win in the Netherlands on 3 September and a 0-0 home draw with Kazakhstan three days later, results that secured the Nordic nation a place at UEFA EURO 2016 – their first major tournament.

• Rasmus Bengtsson started against Elfsborg on Saturday, his first appearance since sustaining a thigh injury in the play-off second leg against Celtic.

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