MOTD: Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 Chelsea

By on February 16, 2016

This was not the blowout win that Paris Saint-Germain had envisioned after weeks of preparation for their Champions League Round of 16 tie with Chelsea.  Nor, however, did the narrow, 2-1 win for the home side particularly suit Chelsea, who set out to soak up pressure and attempt to take the tie level back to Stamford Bridge.  PSG must be weary in London, their naïve performance against the Blues in the second leg of their tie in 2013/14 still fresh in their minds, but alternatively, Chelsea were hardly convincing enough to be confident they can turn around the deficit at home, despite their coveted away goal.

Chelsea’s makeshift back line in the wake of injuries to John Terry and Kurt Zouma performed admirably well, but Edinson Cavani came on in the second half to steal a crucial winner.  Guus Hiddink was left envious of their opponents’ depth, a decisive factor in a tight match.

“I envy the bench of PSG,” he said, per the Telegraph. “A very strong bench of 15 or 16 international players, which is very good. If you see what this team can bring on in the second half, world-class players as substitutes. This is a very strong PSG, a well-built side with a complete squad.

“We had to reshuffle, of course. If you saw us even one week ago, we’d played with Terry and Zouma, so we had to reshuffle. The full-backs have different positions now, but I’m still happy with their performances.”

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, still at the peak of his powers at the age of thirty-four, spearheaded PSG’s attack, scoring the opening goal.  Although he began to reach the end of his physical limits late on, he intuitively adapted his game to draw defenders and create space for Angel di Maria to run the middle of the park.

The Argentine’s bustling energy and agility spread hysteria across Chelsea’s back-line, cutting into the middle, feeding runs out wide, unleashing a wicked effort on goal in the second half and later assisting Cavani’s winner.

Chelsea held up well early on, but time was always against their weakened side.  The visitors were put under the cosh early on and Ibrahimovic threatened with an early header.

In the twenty-fourth minute, Hiddink’s men nearly snatched a surprise opener, with Diego Costa peeling off of his marker to send a powerful, close-range header towards goal from Baba Rahman’s cross.  Kevin Trapp somehow snatched his trailing arm out in time to tip the ball onto the crossbar, but the warning shots were fired.  PSG could not afford to let their guard down.
Zlatan found the opener in the thirty-eight minute, a low, deflected twenty-five yard free-kick, but it was quickly negated by John Obi Mikel’s volley in a crowded goal-mouth scramble on the brink of the half.

“It was a very difficult game – but we keep going, we keep fighting, we will do everything we can at home to go through. It was a very difficult for the whole team – but we came here with courage and we had a couple of chances to win the game. We lose a little bit of concentration at the end and the top strikers take every single chance. We need to be more careful in London,” said Branislav Ivanovic, who filled in alongside Gary Cahill at center-back.

Chelsea briefly threatened to complete the comeback when Costa was put in on the break in the forty-ninth minute, but Trapp was quick off his line to snuff out the danger.

PSG buried the game late on as Cavani spun off his oblivious marker at the perfect time to meet Di Maria’s clipped ball over the top and tuck a low finish past Courtois from a tight angle.  Yet Parisians couldn’t muster a third goal to effectively kill of the tie, leaving a second leg finely poised.

Homepage photo credit: Jean-Jacques Abalain, via Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.