Chelsea defender Wesley Fofana admitted his side were handed a reality check by Paris Saint-Germain after last night’s sobering Champions League defeat.
Liam Rosenior’s young side were more than a match for the holders and fully deserved to be on terms when Enzo Fernandez made it 2-2 shortly before the hour mark.
A catastrophic error from goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen, however, presented Vitinha with the chance to restore PSG’s lead with 16 minutes remaining and two late goals from substitute Khvicha Kvaratskhelia left Chelsea with a mountain to climb in next week’s return fixture.
Ousmane Dembele, recently returned from injury, had earlier given Luis Enrique’s side a 2-1 lead, applying the perfect finish to a sweeping move having tied Fofana up in knots in the process.
‘It’s nothing new,’ said Fofana when asked to assess PSG’s class in attack. ‘I think everyone knows it. Last year, they were European champions, and that’s not for nothing.
‘They have a Ballon d’Or winner, they have Ousmane (Dembele), who is among the best players in the world, even now, even though he’s coming back from injury.
‘So yes, for sure, they are great players, they only have great players.’
Your football fix
Metro's Head of Sport James Goldman delivers punchy analysis, transfer talk and his take on the week's biggest stories direct to your inbox every week.
Sign up here, it's an open goal.
The tie was still in the balance heading into the closing stages but the impact Kvaratskhelia made coming off the bench is likely to prove decisive with the Georgia international punishing Chelsea’s naivety.
‘We saw it, they bring on another great player (Kvaratskhelia). He hurt us, he scores two goals.
‘Was it a difficult moment? Physically, we were struggling because we pressed a lot, we tried to go man-to-man throughout the match, but they are a great team.
‘Tonight, they showed that, so hats off to them.’
Pedro Neto, meanwhile, has apologised for pushing a ball boy to the ground during a frenetic end to the game.
The incident occurred with Chelsea trailing 4-2 in stoppage time at the Parc des Princes Rosenior’s side sought a late response.
The PSG players reacted angrily after Neto wrestled the ball off the ball boy, leaving him on the ground and sparking a melee, and the Portuguese winger spoke after the match to hold his hands up.
‘I want to come out to say the situation that happened on the pitch, I want to apologise to the ball boy,’ the 26-year-old told TNT Sports.
‘I already spoke with him. With the emotions of the game, we were losing, I wanted to pick up the ball. I gave him a little push and I saw that I hurt him in a sort of way.
‘I’m not like this. I went there to apologise, I gave him my shirt as well. That cannot happen, so I’m really, really sorry about that.’
Neto escaped without any punishment from the referee, and head coach Rosenior also apologised in his post-match press conference.
“If there was anything from our side that was wrong or out of order, I apologise on behalf of the club,” he said.
It was the home side who had the last laugh, though, with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia scoring his second goal four minutes into stoppage time to make it 5-2 and put PSG within touching distance of the quarter-finals.
No comments:
Post a Comment