Chelsea’s Champions League heartbreak is finally over as PSG scores a stunning comeback victory!
Chelsea 0-3 PSG: Parisian’s Champions League defence continues PSG confirmed their spot in the Champions League quarter-final at Stamford Bridge this evening, with a 7-2 aggregate win and a 3-0 win on the night, thanks to first-half goals from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Bradley Barcola before Senny Mayulu wrapped up the tie on the hour mark. As It Happened Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior made four changes from his side’s home defeat to Newcastle United this past weekend, with Pedro Neto, Mamadou Sarr, Jorrel Hato and Andrey Santos replacing Alejandro Garnacho, Malo Gusto, Wesley Fofana and the injured Reece James. Meanwhile, PSG made just one change to their starting side with Kvaratskhelia replacing Désiré Doué following his first-leg brace against The Blues last time out.
The Stamford Bridge crowd burst into life as Liquidator played the side’s out of the tunnel, however it was The Parisian’s who took an early lead through Kvaratskhelia after just six minutes, when his left-footed effort snuck past Sánchez and into the far corner. Chelsea almost found an instant leveller but Enzo Fernández saw his close-range header saved. Neto was next to fire goalwards but his shot was blocked by a teammate and subsequently went out for a goal kick.
PSG were lightning fast on the counter-attack again however and saw Barcola fire their second goal of the night and seventh of the tie into the top corner after he found a pocket of space on the edge of the penalty area. Cole Palmer got his head up in a wide area in the 23rd minute and found Fernández with a cross, but the Argentinian couldn’t direct his header on target. On the half hour mark, Kvaratskhelia had the ball in the net again but the linesman’s flag went up straight away, ruling the Georgian winger offside.
Moments later, Barcola almost doubled his tally for the night, but dragged his shot narrowly wide of the post. As the first half began to draw to a close, Matvey Safanov was called into action by Palmer to make a superb save down to his right-hand side. He was forced into another save from the resulting corner, before Sánchez once again denied Barcola at the other end of the pitch.
Moments later came huge shouts from the home crowd after Pedro was seemingly pushed inside the area. However, the claims were waved away by tonight’s referee Slavko Vinčić, bringing the first-half to an end. Both sides made a single change at the break, with João Neves replaced by Mayulu for the visitors and Josh Acheampong replacing Sarr for Chelsea.