Chelsea crashed out of the UEFA Champions League on away goals yesterday after conceding two goals to 10-man Paris Saint-Germain and Mourinho admitted that his side’s performance on the night was simply not good enough.
Going into the game, the blues were favorites and they were handed a major advantage in the 31st minute when PSG striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic was sent off for his challenge on Oscar. The decision was definitely harsh to say the least. Despite the numerical advantage, Chelsea couldn’t make use of their extra man until the 81st minute when Gary Cahill smashed the ball from a scrappy situation to give his side the lead. The tie wasn’t over for PSG however as they still wanted the one away goal to force extra time and they did so when former Chelsea defender David Luiz scored with a powerful header in the 86th minute.
Despite playing with 10-men, PSG still created a few openings in extra time and were always a threat. Eden Hazard thought he had won his side the game in the 6th minute of extra time after slotting home a penalty but his and Chelsea’s joy was short lived as PSG equalised again in the 24th minute of extra time to send their 2000 odd travelling fans into raptures.
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho revealed after the game that PSG coped with the pressure very well, “I want to discuss that with the players tomorrow and see the game in a calm way. I want to see their feelings, I want to know what they felt on the pitch and we must try to find conclusions about our performance. Our performance wasn’t good enough.
“Of course we have the game in our hands twice but the opponent was stronger than us. They coped better with the pressure of the game.
“Maybe because they were with 10 men we felt even more the pressure of winning and they had nothing to lose. They were just playing their game.
“We conceded two goals from two set pieces where the organisation is clear and it’s absolutely decided the players are in the zone. We conceded two goals that are difficult to accept.”
“They were aggressive the same way [as in Paris].
“They are what we used to call, in our side of the continental Europe, they were clever. In England that is not accepted as clever, intelligent, experienced people.
“I wouldn’t say dirty, but this is a great part of the game.”
“We had the game in our hands twice [when Chelsea took a lead] and they coped better with the pressure of the game. We couldn’t cope with that, we concede two goals in two set pieces and that is difficult to accept.
“Last season we lost [the first leg] in Paris 3-1 and had one direction to go and that direction was without any pressure because the game was lost. Today with the 1-1, it was a dangerous result. We tried to win in this game, but the moment we had 10 men we felt too much that pressure.
“We had a few individual performances that were not good enough but collectively they were better,” he added.