Ibra Reaches 20 Goals

Manchester United’s top scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic hit his 20th goal of the season in Sunday’s 3-0 Premier League win at Leicester City.

The 35-year-old calmly converted Antonio Valencia’s cross to double the Reds’ lead just before the break at the King Power Stadium, moments after Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s superb opener.

Ibra is the first Red to reach the 20-goal mark since Robin van Persie in the 2012/13 title-winning season and, in netting at Leicester, he became the oldest player to reach 15 Premier League goals in a season, at 35 years and 125 days.

“I think no-one is surprised because this is Zlatan Ibrahimovic,” Man-of-the-Match Mkhitaryan told MUTV. “You have to expect this kind of performance.

“I’m sure that he’s going to score more than 20; he can maybe score 30 to 35 goals this season, if not more, because everyone knows that he’s a big, big star. I’m just excited and glad that he keeps scoring a lot of goals.”

Juan Mata, who added United’s third goal after the break against the Foxes, said: “He still has a lot of games to go until the end of the season and I’m sure he will score a lot more.

“But obviously it’s his first year in England, his first time at Man United and in the Premier League and he is in February with 20 goals. It’s a great record but I’m sure he’ll want more.”

Jose Mourinho was keen to point out that the Swede has netted virtually all of his goals for United from open play.

The boss told MUTV: "Normally when strikers score goals we say '22 goals – 14 goals and eight penalties', or '21 goals – 14 goals and seven penalties'. With Zlatan we need to remind ourselves it's 20 goals – 19 and one penalty."