Paris Saint-Germain beat Chelsea 5-2 in the first leg of the Champions League last 16 yesterday. Chelsea’s Filip Jorgensen gave them a gift, and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia scored two late goals.
According to AFP, it looked like Chelsea would go back to London for the second leg next week with a draw and maybe the upper hand in the game after they pulled back from behind twice in the first hour at the Parc des Princes.
Malo Gusto canceled out Bradley Barcola’s early goal for PSG, and Ousmane Dembele’s stunning finish put the hosts back in front right before the break. Enzo Fernandez then made it 2-2.
But a sloppy ball from Jorgensen was picked off, and Vitinha scored PSG’s third goal with a beautiful lob in the 74th minute. Kvaratskhelia, who came on as a substitute, scored a great fourth goal for the hosts four minutes from the end.
Kvaratskhelia scored again in stoppage time, making it look like the reigning European champions were one step closer to the quarter-finals before the second leg at Stamford Bridge next Tuesday.
The tie may not be finished, but this victory does give PSG some retribution in the first game between the two teams since Chelsea beat a tired French squad 3-0 in the Club World Cup final last July.
Nine of Chelsea’s starting XI from that day were present at kick-off. The only two who weren’t were Jorgensen (who was preferred here to Robert Sanchez) and defender Wesley Fofana.
Of course, they also have a new coach. Liam Rosenior took over for Enzo Maresca in January.
He returned to France for this game. He had a good 18 months at Strasbourg, which is part of the same BlueCo group that owns Chelsea.
His start in west London has been good enough, but now it’s going to be hard to avoid leaving Europe, especially as PSG seems to have gotten their hunger back after some bad games in the last few weeks.
Luis Enrique’s team, who won three knockout matches against Premier League teams on their way to winning the European Cup last year, have had trouble getting back to the form they had last season because of how long the season was.
Mistakes by the goalkeeper
Dembele, who won the Ballon d’Or, was starting for PSG for the 15th time in 41 games this season. Before yesterday, he had only played 90 minutes four times.
They are only one point ahead of Lens at the top of Ligue 1 and are also out of the French Cup. They came into this game having only won two of their last seven games in Europe.
But they got off to a fast start, scoring in the opening 10 minutes when Neves headed the ball down for Barcola, who controlled it and then sent it in off the bottom of the crossbar for his first Champions League goal in more than a year.
The champs were in the mood when Jorgensen tipped a Dembele shot onto the post and Barcola curled wide, but some people think that selling Gianluigi Donnarumma would hurt them.
Matfei Safonov is now the first-choice goalkeeper, and he was to blame for Chelsea’s first equalizer shortly before the half-hour mark.
Fernandez found Gusto all alone on the right side of Chelsea’s field, and the French full-back scored with a shot that Safonov should have stopped.
The Russian made up for it by stopping a Cole Palmer shot at 39 minutes, 14 seconds before Dembele made it 2-1.
Desire Doue let him go, and he sprinted through on goal, faked one way and then the other, and scored with a shot that bounced off Fofana.
At halftime, his 12th goal of the season put the teams up, but Chelsea came back to tie the game as the hour mark drew near.
Pedro Neto flew down the left side and sent the ball back to Fernandez, who was open, to shoot it in the first time.
Then Chelsea fell apart. Barcola intercepted a Jorgensen pass, and Vitinha finished it off in style. Kvaratskhelia’s amazing solo effort and Achraf Hakimi’s late assist gave it a night to remember for the home team.
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