Liam Rosenior, Chelsea outclassed by Enrique, PSG as Stamford Bridge turns toxic | OneFootball

Chelsea will rue their expected goals superiority against Paris Saint-Germain, but they were nowhere near good enough to win this Champions League tie.

Liam Rosenior’s side managed to lose 5-2 in the first leg despite having superior xG (0.90-1.57). There was a freakish Bradley Barcola finish on his ‘weak’ foot, an excellent Ousmane Dembele strike, a superb Vitinha lob following a Filip Jorgensen error, an outrageous Khvicha Kvaratskhelia curler, and another from the Georgian.

Jorgensen shot himself in the foot in the first leg, and it was Mamadou Sarr’s turn on Wednesday night, failing to control the ball and allowing Kvaratskhelia through to convert past Robert Sanchez, who had been swiftly brought in for Jorgensen against Newcastle United in the Premier League on Saturday.

The Spanish goalkeeper wasn’t to blame, it was all on Sarr, but his footing was off as he shifted most of his weight toward the near post, and ‘Kvaradona’ finished across goal to make it 6-2 on aggregate after only six minutes at Stamford Bridge.

It took eight more minutes for Paris to double their lead on the night and completely kill any chance of a Chelsea comeback, and it was another silly Barcola finish to rub even more xG salt into Rosenior’s wounds.

Before kick-off, the Bridge was buzzing, hoping for an all-timer European night, but just 14 minutes later, there were Roman Abramovich and anti-Clearlake chants ringing around the stadium.

After a strong start, Rosenior now looks completely out of his depth, and Chelsea’s season is in serious danger of becoming a massive failure.

Winning this season’s Champions League was always a monumental ask, but not impossible, and attention now turns to ensuring they are in Europe’s premier competition next season. Winning the FA Cup would be very nice indeed, but top five means more money, which is Todd Boehly and Clearlake’s biggest priority.

Luis Enrique did a number on Rosenior, though the Paris head coach had the important advantage of better players, as Chelsea’s higher xG across two legs was not enough to stop a five-goal aggregate defeat.

Clinical, world-class finishing from world-class players made the biggest difference, though individual errors also heavily influenced the outcome of this last-16 tie.

The turning point was clearly Jorgensen’s mistake, which led to Vitinha putting PSG 3-2 up in the first leg. The final nail came when Sarr allowed Kvaratskhelia to open the scoring and effectively finish the tie only six minutes into the second leg.

It’s a cliché, but you really can’t afford to make those mistakes at this level, especially not against the actual European champions.

And there’s not enough writing on that bloody notepad that can stop players from giving the ball away cheaply, or prevent five second-half goals.

By the 60th minute, Rosenior decided to wave the white flag, bringing off Cole Palmer, Enzo Fernandez, and Joao Pedro, with attention turning to Everton away on Saturday. Against a team of Paris’ quality, 30 minutes without three of your best players is enough to turn embarrassment into pure, job-threatening humiliation.

A few minutes later, the away fans were waving goodbye to the home supporters as Senny Mayulu made it 3-0 on the night. Hopefully there was a French variant of ‘Is there a fire drill?’ being sung.

Rosenior will not get sacked this week, we know that, but it’s hard to imagine him being here this time next year. That isn’t really on him.

The Chelsea job came far too soon for an intriguing young coach with some bright – and some bat-sh*t – ideas. He was thrown into it essentially as a promotion from managing BlueCo-owned Strasbourg in Ligue 1, a division dominated by PSG.

Much of the supporters’ frustration toward the board stems from that, but it goes far deeper than changing the head coach from Enzo Maresca to Rosenior.

Concentrating solely on what happened on the pitch in the French and English capitals, Chelsea were simply outclassed, Rosenior was outcoached, and a couple of individual errors really cost the Premier League side.