The Portuguese wants his team to play the game without ‘˜fear’ when the Blues take on French side, Paris Saint Germain in the second-leg of the quarter-final tie in London on Tuesday.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has sounded the alarm bells. The Portuguese wants his team to play the game without ‘fear’ when the Blues take on French side, Paris Saint Germain in the second-leg of the quarter-final tie in London on Tuesday. The Stamford Bridge side will hope to draw inspiration from their 2012 Champions League triumph when they attempted to overturn a 3-1 (against Napoli) deficit.
Chelsea had a nightmare in France last week when Argentine Javier Pastore’s 90th-minute solo effor gave PSG a two-goal advantage and put them in firm position ahead of the second leg at Stamford Bridge. The only sign of ‘good luck’ for Chelsea will be the unavailability of star striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic who is ruled out for four weeks due to injury.
Chelsea are having problems of their own in the striking department where none of the trio strikers are in the mood to score the goals. Samuel Eto’o has been out injured, Fernando Torres is out of form and Demba Ba has been hardly used by Mourinho. The Blues will look up to their talisman, Eden Hazard to provide some creativity in the midfield department. Brazilian Oscar too will have to come good on the night as fellow midfielder, Ramires is suspended.
If stats are to go by, only 24 percent of the teams who have lost 3-1 in the away leg of a UEFA tie since 1970, have gone on to reach the next round. But Chelsea can take heart from the fact that they pulled off just such a feat two years ago when they were beaten 3-1 at Napoli in the last 16 but oversaw it by a morale-boosting 4-1 win after extra time in the return leg.
The fact of the matter is that current Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho has never lost a European quarter-final, and the defeat by PSG would be a hard pill to swallow for the Portuguese in the light of Di Matteo’s achievement in 2012 and last year’s Europa League success under interim manager Rafael Benitez. Furthermore, with Chelsea’s Premier League title challenge in a shaky process, success in the Champions League has taken on even greater importance.
Man to watch out – Eden Hazard. With the strikers out of form, the mantle to take the side home falls on the shoulders of the Belgian winger who has been inspirational for the Blues since his arrival from Lille. Hazard has reached new heights since the arrival of Jose Mourinho and in the wake of the UEFA Champions League tie, the former needs to pull up his socks and show what a talent he is!
Result – 4-1 to Chelsea
