Chelsea 0-3 PSG [2-8 agg]: Parisian’s Champions League defence continues | OneFootball

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.

It was Khvicha Kvaratskhelia who opened the scoring after just six minutes, before Bradley Barcola doubled the Parisian’s lead with a superb strike from the edge of the box.

Chelsea continued to search for a way back but were consistently denied by Matvey Safanov who made some excellent saves throughout. It was teenage sensation Senny Mayulu who added a third for PSG and wrapped up the tie in the second-half.

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, 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.

Pedro almost netted Chelsea’s first goal of the night ten minutes into the second-half, but his strike curled wide. Three more changes followed for the hosts with Liam Delap, Romeo Lavia and Garnacho being introduced in favour of Palmer, Pedro and Fernández. Meanwhile, PSG replaced Barcola with Doué for the remaining half hour of play.

At one end of the pitch, Safonov once again pulled off a show stopping save moments later before Mayulu netted from the edge of the box at the other to all but end Chelsea’s faint hopes of a comeback. The visitors continued to make changes following the goal with Dembélé and Nuno Mendes withdrawn in favour of Gonçalo Ramos and Lucas Hernández.

Neto provided a lovely bit of trickery inside the PSG penalty area before firing over the crossbar, before Chelsea’s final change saw Tosin Adarabiyo replace Cucurella. Garnacho then looked to get one on the board for the hosts but he was denied by Safonov at the near post.

Next up to test the PSG keeper was Delap, who dragged his effort from the edge of the box down the middle of the goal. A break in play came with less than ten minutes of normal time remaining whilst Chalobah received treatment on the edge of his own penalty box, the defender was then stretchered off by the medical team.

The full-time whistle blew dead on the 90th minute, bringing an entertaining tie to a close with PSG’s title defence continuing strongly, they will now face either Galatasaray or Liverpool in the next round.