Sweden captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic says he will not follow the World Cup after their play-off defeat by Portugal.
The Paris St-Germain striker scored twice in Tuesday’s second leg defeat but Cristiano Ronaldo’s hat-trick took Portugal through 4-2 on aggregate.
Ibrahimovic, 32, said: “One thing is sure, a World Cup without me is something I won’t be following.
“All my congratulations to Portugal, but the two teams deserved to go to the World Cup.”
The play-off between Sweden and Portugal, who had both finished second in their qualifying groups, had been billed as a showdown between Ibrahimovic and Ronaldo – two of the best players in the world.
They ended up scoring all six goals between them as Portugal won 4-2 on aggregate.
Former Inter Milan forward Ibrahimovic, who has played in two World Cups, scored eight times in qualifying, including the play-offs, and assisted another six goals – having a hand in 14 out of their 21 goals.
He told Uefa’s website: “Why did we lose? To be honest, they were better than us. We should be proud. We couldn’t have done better than we did.
“Of course, we could look back at our mistakes, but these things happen. They punished our mistakes. After making it 2-1 it felt like we were on a roll, our hopes grew, but unfortunately they made it 2-2 soon afterwards.”
Real Madrid forward Ronaldo, who has scored 34 goals in 24 games this season for club and country, said: “I just did my job, as I have been doing lately. I always try to give my best – that is always my goal.”
He is now Portugal’s joint-top scorer, along with retired former PSG striker Pauleta on 47.
“It was not a priority for me to break Pauleta’s record,” the 28-year-old said. “I knew Portugal needed me and I stuck to the task at hand. Now we have some time to rest and to do our best for our clubs before starting to think about the World Cup finals.”
BBC SPORT
