Chelsea look to overturn a 2-1 deficit when they welcome Paris Saint Germain at Stamford Bridge in the second leg of round of 16 knockout clash in the Champions League 2015-16 season.
Their first leg clash was evenly poised in Paris, until a brilliant goal from Cavani send PSG into the lead, but John Obi Mikel’s goal give Chelsea much needed away goal advantage as these ties are often decided on slimmest of the margins.
Form Comparison
The loss against PSG in the first is the only defeat for Chelsea since the departure of Jose Mourinho, which stretched to 17 matches in all competitions. Chelsea are unbeaten in their last 10 home matches, with 5 wins and 5 draws. The stats shows that Blues are a better team away from home as they have won 5 out of their last 8 matches, with 2 draws and 1 defeat.
PSG have lost only once in their last 28 matches in all competitions, with 24 of them being wins. Their only defeat came against Lyon away from home on 28th February in the French Ligue 1. They are on due on course to win the French league after gaining a comfortable 23 point lead at the top of the table.
Chelsea: Team News
Kurt Zouma, Pedro Rodriguez and Radamel Falcao are confirmed to miss this tie due to injuries.
John Terry is close to return, but is still doubtful as they are still monitoring the fitness of the Chelsea captain. If he doesn’t pass the fitness test on time, Ivanovic will once again partner Gary Cahil in defence with Baba Rahman coming at left back.
Diego Costa and Fabregas were rested in the weekend clash against Stoke City and both are expected to start on Wednesday.
Chelsea: Predicted Line-up (4-2-3-1)
Courtois – Rahman, Ivanovic, Cahill, Azplicueta – Mikel, Fabregas – Hazard, Oscar, Willian – Costa.
PSG: Team News
PSG head coach Laurent Blanc will miss both Blaise Matuidi and Marco Veratti due to injury, while Serge Aurier is indefinitely suspended by the club for homophobic remarks on manager Laurent Blanc and his team mates.
PSG: Predicted Line-up (4-2-3-1)
Trapp – Maxwell, Silva, Luiz, Marquinhos – Motta, Stambaouli, Rabiot – Di Maria, Cavani, Ibrahamovic.
Chelsea vs PSG: Head-to-Head Stats
This is the third time in a row that PSG and Chelsea are drawn together in the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League.
When they met in the last year’s round of 16, PSG knocked out Chelsea by virtue of away goal after drawing in both legs.
In the met in the 2013-14 quarter-finals, the teams shared a win a piece with Chelsea advancing to the semifinals helped by a superior away goal, after aggregate score was tied at 3-3.
Chelsea vs PSG: Qualification Scenario
First Leg: Chelsea 1-2 PSG
>Chelsea qualify if they win with a margin of 2 or more goals.
>If Chelsea win by 2-1, the match goes into extra time and penalty shoot-out.
>PSG need a draw to qualify or loss by a 1 goal margin scoring 2 or more goals.
>If Chelsea win by 2-1, the match goes into extra time and penalty shoot-out.
>PSG need a draw to qualify or loss by a 1 goal margin scoring 2 or more goals.
Chelsea vs PSG: Prediction
Chelsea head-coach Guss Hiddink will be hopeful that his team can turn around the 2-1 defeat at Parc du Princess two weeks ago. But PSG’s one goal advantage enable them to sit back and counter attack, even though an early Chelsea goal will change the complexion of the match.
The Blues could be on the back foot here, considering the fitness of both John Terry and Diego Costa. At the same time PSG have plenty of experience on their side with the likes of Ibrahamovic, Cavani and Angel Di Mari in good form.
I can see this ending it a draw with goals scored at both ends. My Prediction Chelsea 1-1 PSG.
Chelsea can profit from PSG’s pressure to satisfy goals of ‘the project’
Defeat in Champions League for Ligue 1’s runaway leaders by England’s fallen champions could be a defining failure for Qatari-owned club
Chelsea’s Champions League knockout stage adventures have rarely been anything less than gruelling, a team whose lust for glory in this competition has seemed to hang heavy over each occasion. From the cod-ideological struggles with Barcelona of the Mourinho and post-Mourinho team, to the recent bruising defeats by Atlético Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, it has often been tortuous viewing, even for the neutral.
Until now, that is. Perhaps the most striking part of the build-up to the second leg of the last-16 tie against PSG is a certain lightness in the air. For once the pressure really does lie elsewhere.
Chelsea’s season has been listing comfortably for the last two months, a soft-touch salvage operation under emergency commander Hiddink. Whereas for PSG the picture is a little different. These knock-out games are still defining encounters in the early years of what both Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Laurent Blanc referred to repeatedly as “the project”.
“With time, with what the Qataris are investing in this, they will hunt down this Champions League, with or without me,‚” Ibrahimovic said on Tuesdayl night, while Blanc sat poker-faced beside him. Zlatan may be pre-demob-happy, a superstar who can see the exit door ajar in the distance. But these are significant moments for PSG.
Elimination at the hands of a team who could well be absent from European competition next year could be a defining failure not just for the ageing core of this Mk1 project team, but for their manager too. As Hiddink said later, twisting the knife very gently: “Of course Chelsea were anxious also to win the European Cup once. And PSG is the same now. I hope we can stop them a bit in their, what do you say, project.”
It was a note struck also by Gary Cahill, who yawned his way expertly through a series of questions about the pressures of Chelsea’s own run of spring fixtures. “Yeah, it’s a big week for the club,” he shrugged. “Top players tend to enjoy playing in big games. Intense pressure brings out good performances.”
Hiddink has brought “a calmness around the place, a nice atmosphere where the pressure’s on when it has to be on, and the pressure’s off when we work on the training ground. For this game, it’s both things.
“We know how important the game is. But, you know, this evening when we’re together, we’re just calm and relaxed.”
For Chelsea elimination on Wednesday night would still represent a kind of ending, albeit one that has been coming down the track a while. This is the 12th time in 13 seasons of The Abramovic Supremacy they have reached the knockout stage of the Champions League.
Clearing out the core of that team, the residue of the angry, trophy-hogging machine of the early José years, has come slowly. The first leg of this tie was the first time Chelsea have played an Abramovic-era Champions League match without one of John Terry, Petr Cech, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba in the squad. Terry will be missing again at Stamford Bridge, a blow given the likelihood of deep concentrated periods of defence and the fact – make of it what you will – that Ibrahimovic has still never scored a goal when Terry has been on the pitch.
Not that Chelsea are quite as underdog-ish as Hiddink may like to suggest. A 1-0 victory, another nerve-shredding night of deep defence with Mikel Jon Obi and Nemanja Matic an unprepossessing double midfield bolt might look the most likely means of progress.
But Chelsea’s attacking combinations have been good in recent weeks and Hiddink will be conscious of playing to his opponents’ weaknesses, too.
A more belligerent approach might have its merits. Not least when PSG aren’t just walking it in Ligue 1, they’re strolling, flaneuring their way to another room-temperature domestic title, with seven league goals conceded away from home all season, territory and possession dominated each week. Chelsea might be best served trying to take their opponents out of this comfort zone. When they did get forward in Paris they had some joy pulling David Luiz and Thiago Silva around and probing behind the 34-year-old Maxwell.
Since the game in Paris, PSG have lost at Lyon and drew 0-0 with Montpellier at the weekend, a misleading result as Blanc took the opportunity to rest Ibrahimovic and Thiago Motta and gave Ángel Di María just an hour on the pitch.
“Everyone is waiting for that game,” Blanc admitted afterwards, of a second leg that could even turn out to be a tipping point in his own time in charge of Qatar’s 21st-arrondissement superpower.
Blaise Matuidi was a mighty presence last year once PSG had gone down to 10 men in the fixture and should have recovered from a thigh strain in time to start. Marco Veratti’s boldness in possession will be missed. And as ever for PSG, who have failed to score in five of their six away games against English clubs, much will depend on the team’s ability to play through and around their 34-year-old totem, brand-leader and all-round charisma magnet.
Albeit even here there is an intriguing sense of an ending waiting to be written. Out of contract in the summer, Ibrahimovic is likely to leave, the whispers say.
He remains a mighty talent, and a genuine threat to the advantage offered by Mikel’s away goal. For Chelsea, released from the weight of expectation, a fast start may be key.
by Barney Ronay
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