Zlatan Ibrahimovic set up Paris Saint-Germain’s opening goal before netting the victor to knock Chelsea out of the Champions League with a 2-1 win on the night. Ibrahimovic had a score to settle – he missed the 2014 second leg through injury and was sent off in the 2015 tie – and his goal ended the tie as a contest.
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Chelsea’s only losses under Hiddink have been inflicted by PSG, who advanced to the quarter-finals for a fourth straight season and a second in a row at the expense of the Blues.
Mikel who scored Chelsea’s goal in the first leg was efficient for his team but got booked in the 52nd minute of the game by referee Felix Brych for a foul on Loucas Moura. “He makes you see what the game is about, he breathes football and you can tell by his way of playing how much he loves it”.
But writing on Instagram on Tuesday, he said: “I’m gutted to be missing the PSG game”.
Guus Hiddink’s men trail 2-1 on aggregate after the first leg at the Parc des Princes, and are also without French centre-half Kurt Zouma.
“I think we wanted to control the game and let’s say they were letting us control the game and they were striking when we did our mistakes, and that’s how the goal came for Chelsea. We need to be angry in a controlled way on Wednesday, the players must be fully concentrated”.
The duo missed Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Stoke City, but return to the side for the clash at Stamford Bridge along with Cesc Fabregas, who is preferred to Nemanja Matic.
They took just 11 minutes to pull one back as Willian and Pedro combined before the ball was slipped through to Costa.
Willian has been the outstanding performer in what has been an often turbulent Chelsea season, and said he was “delighted with how I’ve been doing”.
Adrien Rabiot took Verratti’s place in midfield alongside Thiago Motta and Blaise Matuidi for Laurent Blanc’s side, who lead 2-1 from the first leg, with Javier Pastore on the bench. They’ve reached the quarter finals on eight of these occasions.
Key Opta stats – Chelsea are in the knockout stages of the Champions League for the 12th time in the last 13 seasons.
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However, the 35-year-old striker has never won the Champions League despite spells at AC Milan, Ajax, Barcelona, Inter Milan and Juventus.
