Paris - Zlatan Ibrahimovic will surely play his last international match for Sweden on Wednesday night, after confirming that he will retire from international football at the end of his Euro 2016.
If Sweden beat Belgium they will qualify for the last-16 but Ibrahimovic must know that this is unlikely. Ibrahimovic dragged his country to the Euros but even he has not looked like raising his team to the next level since they have been here.
Cristiano Ronaldo is not at the end of his international career yet, as he will surely want to stay on to play in one more World Cup should Portugal make it to Russia. But he clearly feels the same sense of frustration as Ibrahimovic, that his own individual brilliance does not translate as effectively to international tournament football as it does to the club game. Portugal are in a slightly better position than Sweden, with two points so far rather than one, but they must target a win against Hungary in Lyon on Wednesday afternoon in the hope of winning the group.
Even in his frustration Ronaldo has been a key figure in the tournament so far and yet for Ibrahimovic it was only on Tuesday, at his press conference at the Allianz Riviera stadium, that he became the story.
“The last game for Sweden at the Euros will be my last game for Sweden,” Ibrahimovic said. “I hope it is not tomorrow. I will not play at the Olympics so I hope we go as far as possible here.
Either way, I will not end disappointed. I am very proud to be captain of Sweden. Wherever I go I will always bring the Swedish flag with me and be proud of it. I will never be disappointed.”
Ibrahimovic has 115 international caps and 62 goals and has dominated Swedish football for a generation. There are not many international teams who have one player who is so clearly on another level from his team-mates. Even Ronaldo plays alongside some very gifted Portuguese players, but everything that Sweden have done since Henrik Larsson retired from international football, if not before, has been about Ibrahimovic.
This is Ibrahimovic's fourth European Championship and his sixth major tournament with Sweden. Even when the team has struggled he has still provided their best moments, such as his goal of the tournament volley against Ukraine at Euro 2012 or his single-handed defeat of Denmark in the two-legged play off to reach this tournament.
But this time Ibrahimovc has struggled to make any real impact on the pitch. Sweden had to win their first Group E match against the Republic of Ireland to have any chance of progressing, but they could barely threaten the Irish goal and were heading for defeat when Ciaran Clark's own goal got them back into the game. They struggled too against Italy and now Ibrahimovic must produce something very special to beat Belgium, as well as hoping that the Swedish defence can hold off Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne and the rest. This story is unlikely to continue beyond tonight.
This is not as terminal a moment in the international career of Ronaldo. He is younger than Ibrahimovic, at 31, and it would certainly be a surprise if he stops playing for Portugal any time soon. But with Ronaldo there is even more of a sense of frustration at not having delivered the major trophy that his talents should have warranted.
This is Ronaldo's seventh major tournament and his fourth European Championship. At the age of 19 he was part of the Portugal team that lost the final of Euro 2004 to Greece, a slip-up that they have never fully made up for. Portugal went out at the semi-finals of the 2006 World Cup and of Euro 2012, a match when Ronaldo missed chances to knock Spain out before not taking one of Portugal's four kicks as they were beaten in the penalty shoot-out.
It is now unlikely that Ronaldo will ever win an international tournament, but having come that close - far closer that Ibrahimovic ever did - there is a certain desperation to his play and conduct here in France this summer. That explains the bitterness after drawing with Iceland in Portugal's first game, and his utter exasperation after missing a penalty against Austria last week, leaving Portugal stuck on two points after two Group F games.
On Wednesday Portugal play Hungary and Ronaldo will be aiming for a victory which should help to take them further through the knock-out rounds. He is not ready to say goodbye to international football, not quite yet.
The Independent