“We must not go into a situation where he will drop back in injury”.
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“I think bearing in mind we are playing a very strong team, you can see that this team what they can bring in the second half with substitutions, this is a very strong PSG with a good build in the total squad”. For sure we will have more dram in three -weeks time.
Further Blanc’s team are the only side, alongside Juventus and Real Madrid, yet to concede a goal at home in the Champions League this season. Blanc could fling on Javier Pastore and Adrien Rabiot before the end and, with Ángel Di María and Lucas Moura outstanding, the runaway Ligue 1 leaders will travel to Stamford Bridge with confidence. We had one or two chances to hurt them and they got a little bit unstable by the way we played.
Chelsea have struggled throughout the Premier League season but they have performed well in their last five outings having dented Arsenal’s title aspirations with a 1-0 win at the Emirates Stadium, thumped MK Dons 5-1 in the FA Cup, before drawing with Watford, Manchester United and then annihilating Newcastle United 5-1.
With John Terry absent, Chelsea’s reshuffled defence featured skipper for the night Branislav Ivanovic in the middle alongside Gary Cahill with Cesar Azpilicueta at right-back and Baba Rahman on the other side. Set to lead the line for Chelsea is Diego Costa, with the striker looking for a 12 goal of the season.
Despite attending a training session on Monday, Terry did not travel with the squad for the last-16 first leg tie against the French champions at the Parc des Princes.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani were on target for PSG in the opening leg in Paris on Tuesday. “I was quite angry about that”.
Despite admitting the defeat in Paris was not a nice feeling, Hiddink was pleased his Chelsea side got the away goal, which came on the stroke of half-time.
While Ibrahimovic scores for fun, it was Mikel’s seventh goal in 361 career club appearances.
Mikel could not have been more obliging with Paris Saint-Germain’s opener.
Courtois was much busier, stopping efforts from Di Maria and Ibrahimovic and unlocking his giant frame to superbly palm away Di Maria’s curling shot.
It was Chelsea’s first loss since the December defeat at Leicester which marked the end of Jose Mourinho’s tenure.
With 63 minutes played, a heroic Cahill block prevented Blaise Matuidi from making it 2-1 to Laurent Blanc’s men.
Nicolas Gaitan floated a free kick into the area and the Brazilian rose to break the deadlock.
That was awarded after Criscito picked up his second yellow card of the game for a foul on Andre Almeida.
“This was a very good match from both teams”.
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This was after the PSG dominated the better part of the match and should have scored more goals.
