Ibra-Cavani works for PSG but not as a partnership

PARIS (AP) — Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani should be one of the most devastating strike partnerships in world football. Yet, strangely, they only score for Paris Saint-Germain when they don't play together.

In Saturday's 4-0 win against Bastia, Ibrahimovic scored twice, went off at halftime and was replaced by Cavani, who got two.

The two players who together cost PSG 84 million euros ($115 million) are scoring more than Manchester United's Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie, with 14 goals to their 12.

But, in 13 games, Ibrahimovic and Cavani still haven't scored in the same match when playing together.

PSG coach Laurent Blanc laughed when asked if they aren't better playing separately.

"No, not at all," he said. "I'm convinced it can work."

With the exception of his unhappy year at Barcelona, all of Ibrahimovic's teams have largely rotated around him. That is true in Paris, too. Tellingly, Cavani has been asked to adapt, not Ibrahimovic. Blanc posts Cavani wide right in a 4-3-3 system, allowing Ibrahimovic to roam at center forward.

"Edinson can play anywhere with the same efficiency," Blanc said.

Ibrahimovic was at his brilliant best against Bastia, scoring another outrageous goal.

A deflected cross landed behind Ibrahimovic — a black belt in taekwondo — who volleyed it with the back of his heel and over his shoulder with fabulous dexterity.

Teammates flocked around the grinning Swede as he milked the crowd's applause.

Try saying "You should be more unselfish" to someone like that.

"Zlatan is a lion, and like all lions, he wants to be the king of the jungle, protect his patch," said Angelo Castellazzi, an assistant to coach Carlo Ancelotti last season in PSG's successful title campaign, where Ibrahimovic scored a career-best 30 goals.

Cavani, last season, scored 29 for a free-flowing Napoli side where he was the focal point.

In 104 league games for Napoli, he scored 78 goals. In fact, Cavani's goal ratio over the past four seasons — one is every 1.33 games — is higher than Ibrahimovic's tally of one every 1.4 games (88 in 123 games).

"The risk comes from the media pressure that conditions egos," former PSG coach Vahid Halilhodzic told France Football magazine. "Because if one of them scores and not the other, the media will immediately jump on it to stir up the rivalry."

Cavani has six league goals, one more than Ibrahimovic.

They almost never combine.

Ibrahimovic set up one Cavani league goal so far and another against a poor Olympiakos side in the Champions League. Although he is playing off the right wing, Cavani has not provided one for Ibrahimovic.

Against Bastia, Cavani got a rare chance at center forward and scored with a goal of such individual brilliance — dribbling past three players and slotting home from a tight angle — that even Ibrahimovic, slumped on the bench with his hair undone, rose to applaud.

"Zlatan's goal is something else. But it's typical of him," PSG midfielder Blaise Matuidi said. "Edinson combines finesse with technical ability."

Ibrahimovic can be a sublime playmaker when he wants: last season he created all four against an abysmal Dinamo Zagreb side. But he is generous like that only when the mood takes him.

Against Benfica this month, he scored twice and then showed off flicks and backheels that didn't always come off, while Cavani made runs for nothing.

With his passing range and gift for knowing when to drop deep, Ibrahimovic could easily do more to bring Cavani into games, give him the ball as he cuts in from the right.

But against Benfica, Cavani made several runs into space only for Ibrahimovic to then gallop across and gobble up that same space for himself.

That Cavani is being so overshadowed by Ibrahimovic seems a sorry waste of the 64 million euros ($84 million) fee PSG paid to Napoli.