CAVANI ON THE MONEY
Striker’s late goal hits Chelsea hard
Supersubs used to be the fairy-tale players in any team. Misfits, renegades, locals boys made good. At paris saint-Germain, they weigh in at £55million, with reputations to match. unsurprisingly, it makes a difference.
edinson Cavani came off the bench and scored a late goal to win this game for psG, set up by a player his equal in value, former Manchester united man Angel di Maria.
psG are the galacticos of France and that proved just too much for Chelsea. In the end, they got what they deserved, the winning goal coming in the 78th minute after an intense spell of pressure. The margins remain small, though, and nobody should write Chelsea out of this competition just yet.
Cavani’s goal was smartly taken, although Thibaut Courtois — brilliant until that point — may have been disappointed to be beaten at his near post. It was a clipped through ball by di Maria, Cavani got inside baba rahman and finished smartly with Courtois beaten hard and low. It was the uruguayan’s third goal in seven Champions League games against Chelsea — plus two assists.
until that point, however, this had threatened to be a sobering occasion for French football. For all their pressure and chances, the best team in the country — by an incredible distance — were being held to a draw at home by what is ostensibly the 12th strongest team in the english premier League.
except, as well all know, Chelsea are far from that. They are a wolf in sheep’s clothing, t heir l eague position a relic of what now appears to be a dressing-room mutiny that forced the removal of Jose Mourinho.
That Chelsea bear no resemblance to this one. Guus Hiddink’s Chelsea are, as expected, one of the most cussed and resilient teams in europe. They will not be hugely dispirited by this, even if Courtois stopped psG pulling away and ending the tie with a series of saves in the second half.
The away goal from that unlikeliest of sources, John Obi Mikel, means that a 1-0 win at stamford bridge in the return leg would see Chelsea through. It will not be easy against a team with psG’s attacking ability, but it is far from impossible.
The problem for psG is they simply haven’t played a team like Chelsea in ages. They are so handily advantaged in Ligue 1 these days that they are vulnerable to what might be termed Celtic syndrome. When they meet opponents that are organised, astute, useful on the counter-attack and good technically, it is such a rarity that it takes them time to adjust.
At this stage in the Champions League, there is always a danger they will arrive undercooked. so psG started as they no doubt do most weeks in domestic competition. They were ambitious, lively, dominating, at ease with the ball. Yet, when that did not provide a breakthrough, as it will most weeks in France, they lost their way and allowed Chelsea to come back into the game.
The half-time score, 1-1, was fair and Chelsea had arguably the best chance of the early exchanges before two set-pieces provided the goals.
The game was only four minutes in when Marco Verratti — outstanding in last season’s tie — struck a shot from 20 yards that forced a fine save from Courtois.
In the 13th minute, psG won a freekick which Zlatan Ibrahimovic curled over but, gradually, the balance of play changed. Chelsea began winning possession. They knocked the ball around, probed and threatened from wide positions.
but there were soon to be eight minutes of Champions League football that Mikel will never forget. It began with a clumsy trip on Lucas for which he was rightly booked.
Ibrahimovic lined up the free-kick and took a rather poor one. He went for power rather than precision, topped it low, and against all merit got a lucky break. The ball hit Mikel, who had taken his eye off it — a cardinal sin in the wall — and wrongfooted Courtois. psG were ahead. It was just about deserved — but it didn’t last long.
The clock had ticked into first-half injury time when Chelsea won a corner. Willian took it. Costa got the headed flick and the ball fell to Mikel, edge of the six-yard box, directly in front of goal. He looked as surprised as anyone, seemed to take half a second to assess this windfall, and rammed it past Kevin Trapp.
It was the first goal psG had conceded at home in the competition all season — and Mikel’s first for Chelsea since December 10, 2014.
Cue Cavani, however, to make it advantage psG.