Paris Saint-Germain took a slight advantage in their Champions League round of 16 tie with a 2-1 win against Chelsea early this morning.
As many would have expected the glamorous Parisians had the struggling English champions on the back-foot early on, with Thibaut Courtois tested from the outset by the attacks of Angel Di Maria and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The hosts were made to wait, but found their breakthrough when the Swedish superstar’s free-kick took a deflection off the defensive wall and hit the back of the net in the 39th minute.
Guus Hiddink’s side would prove their stubbornness though and captured an equaliser moments before the break when a Willian corner would ultimately fall to John Obi Mikel, who would rocket it past Kevin Trapp from close-range.
PSG held the momentum and would press forward for the majority of the second-half. While it seemed at times that the visitors would hold out for a draw, substitute Edinson Cavani broke behind the defence and was found by Di Maria to slot home the decisive goal with 10 minutes left.
Nearing the final-stretch of two completely opposite domestic seasons, the two giants of European football will meet again at Stamford Bridge in early March to decide who will move on to the quarter-finals, where Blues fans will hope Obi Mikel’s goal proves pivotal in the attempts to salvage 2015-16.
POPULAR ARTICLES
Outside90 is pleased to become the official partner of AUSFIFA.com
How Chelsea fans reacted after their 2-1 loss against PSG
Copa90’s depiction of who turned Aston Villa into a laughing stock [WATCH]
PSG
Kevin Trapp – 7: Made four crucial saves over the 90 minutes, highlighted by an early close-range denial of Diego Costa’s header. Unlucky to have conceded from a set-piece.
Marquinhos -7: The 21-year-old excelled against the threats of Eden Hazard, distributed from the back with pin-point accuracy and joined in on the attack when he had the chance.
Thiago Silva – 7: Also had a sublime eye for passing and was physically dominant around the 18-yard box.
David Luiz -6.5: Although everyone was looking forward to another battle with Costa, the ex-Chelsea defender was rather quiet, but performed his duties well enough.
Maxwell – 6.5: There was little threat generated by the visitors down his left-side, allowing the Brazilian to help send the ball forward.
Marco Verratti – 7.5: Tested Thibaut Courtois with an early long drive and was a dominant force in the midfield battle throughout the contest. Created three attacking chances and won 56% of tackles.
Thiago Motta – 6: Was an influence on both sides of the field but needed to show more hunger for the ball.
Angel Di Maria – 8: Confidence is at a high that was unimaginable at this time last year for Di Maria. There were few answers posed for his trickery, which involved 12 crosses, five successful take-ons and the assist for Cavani’s 73rd minute winner.
Blaise Matuidi – 7.5: Was a constant source of fuel for the hosts, slipping passes around the Chelsea midfielders to set up attacks and winning all four attempted take-ons.
Lucas Moura – 7: Tested Courtois in the second-half and proved a creative outlet around the box for PSG.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic – 8.5: Commanded the Parisian attack as always. His deflected 39th minute free-kick opened the scoring among another six attempts on goal against a makeshift opposition defence.
Substitutes
Edinson Cavani – 7.5: It was only matter of minutes after his introduction before the Uruguayan received a long-ball from Di Maria on the edge of the 18-yard box and slotted it through the legs of Courtois for a deserved winning goal.
Javier Pastore – N/A: Was substituted on to hold the lead for the last 10 minutes.
Adrien Rabiot – N/A: Replaced Moura for the closing stages and only saw a handful of the ball.
[interaction id=”56c48e17ee2dfdd3605006a3″]
Chelsea
Thibaut Courtois – 6: It was a busy outing for the rangy Belgian, who perhaps could have done more in close-range against Cavani, but also made six saves to keep the team’s hopes alive in the tie.
Baba Rahman – 4.5: A tough time to receive a rare start for Rahman, constantly threatened by Marquinos and caught out by Di Maria’s long ball at the end.
Branislav Ivanovic – 4.5: Seemed to always be under pressure playing in the centre and his passing was well below-par.
Gary Cahill – 5: Made seven clearances out of the box, but was otherwise invisible with only a few touches of the ball higher-up the field.
Cesar Azpilicueta – 6: Was still able to find some decent space to overlap on the wing and was the most competent of the visiting back four.
Cesc Fabregas – 5: Given no chance to make an attacking impact, yet there were few errors in the Spaniard’s performance.
John Obi Mikel – 7: The Chelsea veteran truly plays his best under Guus Hiddink, atoning for his part in Ibrahimovic’s opener with a forceful finish to hand the visitors a vital away goal on the stroke of halftime.
Eden Hazard – 5.5: Comments about a possible future with the opposition caused much speculation among the blue supporters, yet the playmaker was unfortunate to not have more come of his solid passing and creative attacking movement here.
Willian – 6.5: Created four chances around the top of the box, including the set-piece which lead to the equaliser, yet his crossing otherwise was unusually lacking.
Pedro – 4.5: Unable to follow-up on his domestic exploits of the previous weekend, his passing was poor and he was kept well under-wraps by the PSG defenders.
Diego Costa – 5.5: A 23rd minute header almost handed Chelsea an early lead, yet after that the fiery striker was held outside of the dangerous areas. Will no doubt want to continue the physical battle against Silva in the return-leg
Substitutes
Oscar – 5: Hiddink’s lone substitution came just before Cavani’s goal and at a point in the match when there was little attack being generated by the Blues.
What are your thoughts? Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. Make sure you follow us on Twitter @Outside90 and like us on Facebook.
