Cavani Steals The Show
Yesterday, I claimed that the best that Chelsea could realistically ask for was a 2-1 defeat, a solitary goal down and an away goal to take to the Bridge. This may not have proved to be quite accurate on the night, as Chelsea gave the home side a real run for their money, but ultimately, it was what Chelsea got. A 2-1 defeat in Paris that is arguably the best possible result for the neutral. It means that Chelsea can't afford to sit back in London in the return leg, but at the same time, PSG can never be comfortable at 0-0, knowing that 1-0 to Chelsea is enough to send them through. It should create an atmosphere where both teams will feel the need to score and we could have a cracking game on our hands.
On the night, it was substitute Edinson Cavani who ended up proving the difference between the sides with arguably the match's best moment of quality, as he broke Chelsea's offside trap inch perfectly to latch onto a delightful pass from a rejuvenated Angel Di Maria (being free of LVG seems to agree with him) to fire home from a narrow angle under an onrushing Thibaut Courtois. If Courtois' goalkeeping was questionable for PSG's second then it couldn't be challenged at any other point in the night, as Courtois was unfortunate with Zlatan Ibrahimovic's goal, which took a wicked deflection off of John Obi-Mikel to divert the ball past Courtois, who was already diving the other way. And he made a string of great saves to keep PSG at bay, as the home side dominated for swathes of the match and certainly based on every statistical measure PSG deserved to win the game.
That said, it was PSG's keeper who made the best save of the match, if not the most saves, as he managed to get fingertips to Diego Costa's header back across him to tip it onto the crossbar and deny Chelsea what looked to be a certain goal. It really was a top class save from Kevin Trapp.
Overall, despite that save, PSG will be very frustrated that the game ended 2-1, both because of their own inability to take the numerous chances that they carved up to put Chelsea to the sword, but also because of the nature of Mikel's equaliser. The defending off of Chelsea's corner was inexcusable, as allowing any opposition player time and space to get the ball down and shoot inside your six yard box directly off a corner is an act that thoroughly deserves to see that opponent wheeling around in celebration.
Anyway, this was a good game of football, between two sides that clearly weren't equals on the pitch, and Chelsea will be glad to have an away goal in the bag to bring back to London with them.
Sorry for a slightly shorter edition tonight, busy day, normal service resumed tomorrow as LFC are in action!
The Hard and Fast Section
- Madrid, Wolfsburg and Benfica also won in Europe. Predictable.
- Messi now has over 300 La Liga goals. Unreal.
- Barca are 6 points clear. Unstoppable.
- Rooney out for six weeks. Ouch.
- England's T20 warm up went well. Good.
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