Guus Hiddink has confirmed both Diego Costa and Eden Hazard are injury doubts for Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final at Everton, after the pair came off in the second half of Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.
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For the first time since Roman Abramovich took over as Chelsea owner in 2003, there will be no Champions League football at Stamford Bridge next season.
Paris Saint-Germain star Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored the leading goal for his team in the 67th minute.
But they didn’t have to wait long to extend their aggregate lead as Rabiot held off the challenge of Cesar Azpilicueta to slide home Ibrahimovic’s pass.
The Gunners are still just about in this season’s title race, but they are now eight points back from leaders Leicester City.
Willian exploited Thiago Motta’s giveaway in the PSG end and fed the ball to Costa, who eluded Thiago Silva to hammer the ball past Trapp in the 27th minute.
The match on Wednesday eliminated Chelsea from the Champions League for the second season running.
And Chelsea’s hopes of clawing themselves back into the tie were dealt a blow on the hour when Costa, appearing to have pulled a calf muscle, limped off to be replaced by Bertrand Traoré.
With the score still 1-1, however, Costa went off with a calf injury and the visitors wrapped up the match and the tie through Ibrahimovic’s goal.
PSG has won just one of its past four league games, but they were played around the two legs against Chelsea in the last 16 of the Champions League and coach Laurent Blanc rested key players.
Champions League results in recent seasons suggest they have achieved the goal of overtaking Chelsea.
“We’ll see tomorrow”, Hiddink said on BT Sport. What we have done in three and a half years I believe is fantastic stuff.
“We lost to a very good team I must say”.
Hiddink said of Chelsea’s display: “I think when we go through the game, we started too much respectful in the first 10 minutes and they were dominating”.
‘All of the players dream to play in the Champions League, we live for the competition and the games. We’re doing good things, let’s continue to work hard and give our best. “I think that now they are thinking to become competitive in the Champions League”.
“It’s bad enough at the end of the game, but half-time in a big game, the two guys swapping shirts?”
He won’t face the likes of Di Maria, Ibrahimovic and Moura every night and improved as the game wore on, but the early errors meant his side were already playing catch-up. “We are happy at the moment, but still not satisfied”.
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“Chelsea is now in a transition period”, said Hiddink, who has restored stability following a turbulent start to the season under Jose Mourinho.
