It was a wild, draining night and for a long time before that dramatic finale, when the Paris Saint-Germain players still had the energy to party and Diego Costa looked like he wanted to fight anyone who got in his way, it had threatened to be a personal ordeal for Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Instead, it was a show of competitive courage from Laurent Blanc’s team. A lot will be said of Chelsea’s shortcomings but this also seemed like the night the French champions announced their arrival on the highest stage.
As always, there were a bundle of different side issues. The bigger point, however, is that Chelsea should have been capable of controlling the tie once Ibrahimovic was removed from the game. Hazard’s penalty, after the ball had taken the merest of flicks off Silva’s hand, had looked like putting Chelsea
into the quarter-finals for the seventh time in nine years. Then again, it had been tempting to think the same after Gary Cahill opened the scoring in the 81st minute. Their opponents simply refused to give up. Other teams might have wilted. Yet this was a fit team, as well as one playing with self-belief, and the defensive errors at the end, with John Terry losing Silva for the killer goal, suggested it was Chelsea rather than their opponents who were tiring.
Blanc could also reflect afterwards on the moment, after 57 minutes, when Thiago Motta’s pass sent Cavani running clear; the Uruguayan went around Courtois, only for his shot to clip the inside of one post then flash past the other.
The corner for Silva’s goal came about after Courtois had saved another header from the same player. Again, it was from a cross into the penalty area, with plenty of defenders around. When was the last time Chelsea were so vulnerable from the corner spot?
Ibrahimovic’s challenge on Oscar was clumsy and mistimed – and a player of his size, leaping in at full speed, is asking for trouble – but he did turn his leg away when he realised he was too late to connect with the ball. His studs were not showing and PSG’s players clearly thought was the reaction of Oscar’s team-mates that influenced the Dutch referee, Bjorn Kuipers. Terry and César Azpilicueta led the outrage while Cesc Fàbregas went from demanding a red card to consoling Ibrahimovic within a matter of seconds. Nine Chelsea players were in close proximity to the referee and the PSG players, in turn, remonstrated with their opponents for taking the protests too far. That set the tone for the night, with Costa and David Luiz prominently involved in the different flash points.
Until that point, it had been a strangely subdued game, with both teams using the opening half an hour to size one another up. Hazard had looked determined to lift the quality but it needed the sending-off to spark the game into life.
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It is rare to see Chelsea so susceptible defensively. Yet they also lacked penetration in attack, despite Hazard’s menace. Blanc had switched Cavani to a more central role after the red card and the forward excelled in place of Ibrahimovic. Oscar was substituted at half-time. Fàbregas is having a lapse in form and Costa seems so preoccupied with alpha-male aggro it possibly distracts him from the rather more important task of beating the opposition goalkeeper.
As always, there were a bundle of different side issues. The bigger point, however, is that Chelsea should have been capable of controlling the tie once Ibrahimovic was removed from the game. Hazard’s penalty, after the ball had taken the merest of flicks off Silva’s hand, had looked like putting Chelsea
into the quarter-finals for the seventh time in nine years. Then again, it had been tempting to think the same after Gary Cahill opened the scoring in the 81st minute. Their opponents simply refused to give up. Other teams might have wilted. Yet this was a fit team, as well as one playing with self-belief, and the defensive errors at the end, with John Terry losing Silva for the killer goal, suggested it was Chelsea rather than their opponents who were tiring.
Blanc could also reflect afterwards on the moment, after 57 minutes, when Thiago Motta’s pass sent Cavani running clear; the Uruguayan went around Courtois, only for his shot to clip the inside of one post then flash past the other.
The corner for Silva’s goal came about after Courtois had saved another header from the same player. Again, it was from a cross into the penalty area, with plenty of defenders around. When was the last time Chelsea were so vulnerable from the corner spot?
Ibrahimovic’s challenge on Oscar was clumsy and mistimed – and a player of his size, leaping in at full speed, is asking for trouble – but he did turn his leg away when he realised he was too late to connect with the ball. His studs were not showing and PSG’s players clearly thought was the reaction of Oscar’s team-mates that influenced the Dutch referee, Bjorn Kuipers. Terry and César Azpilicueta led the outrage while Cesc Fàbregas went from demanding a red card to consoling Ibrahimovic within a matter of seconds. Nine Chelsea players were in close proximity to the referee and the PSG players, in turn, remonstrated with their opponents for taking the protests too far. That set the tone for the night, with Costa and David Luiz prominently involved in the different flash points.
Until that point, it had been a strangely subdued game, with both teams using the opening half an hour to size one another up. Hazard had looked determined to lift the quality but it needed the sending-off to spark the game into life.
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It is rare to see Chelsea so susceptible defensively. Yet they also lacked penetration in attack, despite Hazard’s menace. Blanc had switched Cavani to a more central role after the red card and the forward excelled in place of Ibrahimovic. Oscar was substituted at half-time. Fàbregas is having a lapse in form and Costa seems so preoccupied with alpha-male aggro it possibly distracts him from the rather more important task of beating the opposition goalkeeper.
