Jose Moujrinho was brought back to Chelsea to win a European Cup. “We have great players to play a great match against Chelsea”.
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Like last season, the Ligue 1 leaders will host the first leg in Paris. And with an interim manager, no less. “It will be hard but if we want to win the Champions League, we have to win against all teams”.
The goal sparked Mourinho into wild celebration, storming down the touchline to join his players, reminiscent of his reaction to Porto’s victor against Manchester United in 2004. Then they got knocked out by Paris. This is among the most evenly matched ties in the Round of 16. He’s being asked to protect a midfielder with serious deficiencies no matter who plays next to him, as well as a slow and aging defense.
Arsene Wenger’s team were perhaps fortunate to progress to this stage given their inconsistent form in Group F, in which they finished second behind Bayern, but they will at least know they will avoid the German champions at this first knockout stage, which they have failed to progress beyond during the past five seasons.
“When we were candidates, we lost two semi-finals with Real Madrid, we lost two semi-finals with Chelsea, so let’s see”. The message is clear: they’re good, but they’re not quite there. Yet. “Both are great clubs and they have great ambitions”.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is also the league’s top scorer with 14, while Edinson Cavani is not too far behind, on ten. A Hazard penalty levelled the scores but a David Luiz own goal, followed by Javier Pastore’s mazy run and finish in injury time gave the Blues a mountain to climb.
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PSG coach Laurent Blanc is hopeful that he will have a fully fit squad to choose from when that game comes around.
