PARIS: Zlatan Ibrahimovic ended his Paris St Germain career in style by reaching 50 goals in an outstanding farewell season as the French champions completed a second successive domestic treble by beating Olympique de Marseille 4-2 in the French Cup final on Saturday.

Blaise Matuidi struck inside two minutes at the Stade de France, but Marseille hit back just 10 minutes later through midfielder Florian Thauvin before Ibrahimovic took the game away from PSG’s bitter rivals after the break.

The Sweden striker scored from the spot immediately after half-time to restore the capital club’s lead and showed his altruistic side, picking out forward Edinson Cavani with a perfect pass through Marseille’s defence as PSG made it 3-1.

Matuidi created the fourth in the 82nd, allowing Ibrahimovic to charge through and coolly beat goalkeeper Steve Mandanda for his 156th goal in 180 games since joining the club in 2012 and wrap up PSG’s 10th French Cup title.

“It has been a fantastic adventure for me,” the 34-year-old Ibrahimovic said on French television. “We know how it was in the beginning and how it is today. I can just say ‘Mission completed’.”

In typical brash style, he replied with a curt ‘You tell me’ when asked if he will miss the French league, or whether Ligue 1 will miss him.

Asked to say a farewell in French, he instead chose to continue in English.

“I didn’t speak French, and still I won everything,” he said. “I came, I saw, I conquered. Thank you.”

Marseille, who scored a late consolation through Michy Batshuayi, were looking to salvage a mediocre season after finishing 13th in Ligue 1, but PSG were simply a cut above.

Marseille interim coach Franck Passi lamented his side’s slow start to both halves, rueing a lack of concentration.

“You must not give away goals like the ones we conceded because it’s difficult for us to score them,” he said. “It needed to stay at 1-1 for longer, we had the chances but we only scored two goals. We couldn’t afford to concede a goal so quickly, we needed to be more focused.”

PSG went ahead when Matuidi latched onto Angel Di Maria’s cross and turned it in from close range.

But Marseille responded when Thauvin’s strike from just outside the area clipped Thiago Silva’s leg to wrong-foot Salvatore Sirigu.

PSG upped the pace in the second half and after just two minutes, Nicolas N’Koulou brought down Matuidi in the box and Ibrahimovic converted the resulting penalty.

In the 57th minute, Cavani wrapped it up with a powerful shot after being perfectly set up by Ibrahimovic and the Sweden forward completed the rout and guarantee PSG a 10th successive win over Marseille, despite Batshuayi converting a rebound three minutes from the end after Sirigu could only parry Benjamin Mendy’s low shot.

Laurent Blanc then withdrew Ibrahimovic, who will leave Paris when his contract expires at the end of June, to a rapturous ovation late on in the final act of a remarkable chapter in PSG’s history.

Ibrahimovic will stay in France a little longer — the European Championship begins on June 10 — but must then find a new club. He won’t be short of offers, with FA Cup winners Manchester United and Major League Soccer teams reportedly keen.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2016