We made it too easy for them to win
pressure. For them it was very easy, two lines of four, counter-attack, waiting for the right moment. Mentally for them with 10 there is nothing to lose.
‘Our performance was not good enough. The opponent was stronger than us, they coped better with the pressure of the game. Because they had 10 men we felt more the pressure of winning and they had nothing to lose.
‘We couldn’t cope with that, we concede two goals in two set pieces. That is difficult to accept.
‘Last season we lost in Paris 3-1 and had one direction to go, that was without any pressure. With the 1-1 away, it was a dangerous result. We tried to win but the moment they had 10 men we felt too much that pressure.’
The Chelsea manager is left to focus on the Barclays Premier League title race and deal with the stinging criticism from television pundits Jamie Carragher and Graeme Souness, who blamed him for the reaction of his players to the red card tackle from Ibrahimovic.
Souness claimed it was ‘ not the British way of doing things’ and Carragher said: ‘The reaction from the Chelsea players is disgraceful. It comes from Jose Mourinho’s teams. They have this reaction,action, it’s not a one- off. Maybeybe it’s what he said before-forehand in the press con-onferences, it’s got intoto the referee’s head.
‘ I always think with his teams that they will always be respected but never loved, because of situations like this.
‘They take winning to a levelel that no other team or manager does. Mourin-urinho’s words have worked.orked.
‘ Chelsea were chasing shadows in the firstt halfhlf againstit 10 men, never mind 11 men. The best team has gone through and I don’t know where it leaves our league, as Chelsea are the Premier League’s best team. We are miles away as a nation.
‘We’re supposed to be the biggest league in the world with the best players. We are miles away.’
Souness fumed at Oscar for milking the tackle which saw Ibrahimovic receive a red card. ‘ We had a great game of football going on,’ said the former Liverpool captain.
‘It saddens me and makes me angry that gamesmanship is deciding big games. You saw it early on with Diego Costa and David Luiz. And that’s not a sending-off. It’s spoiled the game. It’s not about the best team winning anymore. If that’s what the game is coming to, we need to sort it out quickly. ‘Someone brushes you, you want to go dowdown andad get him in trouble. Thank gogoodness the PSG team sstood up to that. They are a proper teamteam.’ CChelsea took the lelead through Gary CCahill in the 81st minute but Luiz equalised with a header five minutes later. The game went into extra time amd Eden Hazard rerestored the lead for the home team with a penpenalty after Thiago Silva hadh handled. Then SilvaS scored with a header from a corner to equalise on the night and put PSG through on away goals. There were more confrontations and arguments after the final whistle, with Costa pulled away from Yohan Cabaye.
Luiz said: ‘It is amazing for everyone, amazing for Paris the club, for Paris the city. We did a great game, we tried to win the game.
‘We knew we had to score to qualify. I am happy to be in the next round but we have a long way to go to win the Champions League. We have to keep our feet on the floor.
‘PSG gave me a great opportunity to continue my career. It was good to score. I said I wouldn’t celebrate but I couldn’t my emotions control. Thank you to Chelsea and sorry I celebrated — I was so emotional.’