Zlatan Ibrahimovic brace vs. Denmark sends Sweden to Euro 2016

Sweden's talisman Zlatan Ibrahimovic delivered once again in their Euro 2016 play-off with Denmark to ensure his country a place in France next summer.

The 34-year-old scored a brace in Copenhagen and although the Danes fought back to draw 2-2 on the night, Sweden qualified courtesy of a 4-3 aggregate success over the two legs.

There had been suggestions that this could have been Ibrahimovic's last international game had his nation been eliminated, yet he sealed their passage to a tournament that will be hosted in the country where he plays his club football for Paris St Germain.

Ibrahimovic flicked in a Kim Kallstrom corner in the first half to score his 10th goal of this qualifying campaign and later smashed in a free-kick to seal it.

Headers from Yussuf Poulsen and Jannik Vestergaard in the final eight minutes ensured Denmark avoided a home loss on the night, however they only came to life in short spells over the entire 180 minutes.

One of those came in the opening stages here when the hosts had six attempts on goal before Sweden even registered one.

The closest they came was through a Swedish foot when Kallstrom stabbed on to his own crossbar after a corner had been flicked on by Nicolai Jorgensen and helped towards goal by Poulsen.

But a cleverly worked corner routine at the other end increased Sweden's aggregate advantage 19 minutes in.

Ibrahimovic - who had converted a penalty in the first game, when he also escaped a booking that would have ruled him out of this tie - lost Simon Kjaer at a near-post corner and turned the ball into the far corner with a right-footed hook.

He almost doubled that advantage before the half-hour mark when staying onside after collecting a pass from Kallstrom, only this time Kasper Schmeichel's leg thwarted the forward.

Aside from a Christian Eriksen free-kick that Andreas Isaksson pushed away, the Danes were offering little attacking threat, and they were almost 2-0 down by half-time when Daniel Agger shanked a clearance from Ibrahimovic's cross that bounced over the top of his crossbar.

In the second half Eriksen saw his viciously hit half-volley strike Isaksson before Ibrahimovic popped up with another moment of brilliance 14 minutes from time.

He bent a fantastic 25-yard free-kick around the wall and inside Schmeichel's near post to give Sweden a three-goal cushion and a second away goal.

Poulsen's header from Riza Durmisi's back-post cross looped over Isaksson with eight minutes remaining and Vestergaard nodded in from a 90th-minute corner as Denmark rallied to draw the second leg, yet this was to be Ibrahimovic's night.