How Chelsea were outclassed by PSG

Guus Hiddink’s Chelsea have crashed out of the Champions League at the round of 16 for the second straight year after 4-2 aggregate defeat against Paris Saint-Germain.

Article by Ben Law

The reigning Premier League champions came into the second leg of the tie trailing 2-1 after the first leg in Paris.

This meant that they only needed a 1-0 victory to send them through to the next round of the tournament.

However, any hope of achieving this result was extinguished when the visitors took the lead through midfielder Adrien Rabiot in the 16th minute.

It was a goal which sums up Chelsea’s disappointing season after some lacklustre defending left danger man Zlatan Ibrahimovic in space down the right before squaring the ball across goal for Rabiot to tap in.

The goal did seem to wake up the blues as they stepped up their performance after going behind and got themselves back into the game when Diego Costa levelled with a brilliant piece of skill.

The Spanish international received the ball just inside the visitor’s penalty area and held off Thiago Silva before cutting back on to his left foot and calmly placing the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal shortly before the half hour mark.

Chelsea’s high energy pressing seemed to be causing the French champions problems leading up to the break as they became sloppier in possession as the half went on.

The opening stages of the second half were pretty even with both sides forcing the opposing goalkeepers into action.

First it was the blues stopper Courtois who had to be quick off his line to deny Ibrahimovic after he was put through towards goal by Rabiot, but a poor touch from the striker let the keeper manage to get the ball behind for a corner.

It was then Trapp’s turn in the PSG goal. He got down well to deny Willian from the edge of the box before blocking Hazard’s follow up shot.

The tie was effectively over shortly after when PSG’s main attacking stars Angel DI Maria and Zlatan Ibrahimovic combined as the former crossed the ball into the box and the Swedish International volleyed home in the 67th minute to make it 4-2 on aggregate.

After the second goal Chelsea never really threatened to get back in the match and it was in fact PSG who came closest to a third as Ibrahimovic was only denied a second goal of the game by some last ditch defending from Ivanovic and Courtois.

Although the game was end to end and both teams had their chances. The best team over the two legs definitely went through as the Frenchmen looked the more assured and complete team.

With a top four finish in the Premier League looking unlikely, Chelsea are going to have to wait for at least another season to have another chance of competing in the Champions League.

Interim boss Guus Hiddink will now have to focus on winning the FA cup as it is will be his last opportunity to win some silverware before leaving Stamford bridge in the summer.

The result is just another pointer that the English football’s place in European football seems to be on the decline as the continents best teams are making playing English teams look easy in recent times.

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