It was an incredible night in the Champions League on Wednesday night as we saw two more teams advance to the Quarterfinals. Paris Saint-Germain, along with Bayern, FC Porto and Real Madrid, have moved forward. Now we await for four more teams for the next draw later on this month.
It was a historical night at Stamford Bridge Wednesday night in which we saw PSG not only dominate away from home but also deal with Zlatan Ibrahimovic receiving a red card, being down twice, a penalty against them and facing Jose Mourinho and the rest of the Chelsea team. Stamford Bridge can be a very tough stadium to play at, but PSG played their hardest and the effort was enough to beat Chelsea and kick them off the Champions League run.
The red card to Ibrahimovic was very controversial in which we saw Ibra and Brazilian midfielder, Oscar go for the ball. It was a very clean tackle as seen in the gif below as both players went for the ball but Oscar sold the ref with his actions and saw Ibra be sent away in the 31 minute. Even with ten men in the field, PSG made Chelsea look weak as an opponent.
Diego Costa has to be the worst player of the game as he caused a lot of drama in the field, pushed Thiago Motta in extra time (lucky for him the ref was not looking), and was in bad form as he was not able to help his team get anything. Thiabault Courtois made some incredible saves and Gary Cahill was able to put his team in the lead, another defensive player coming to the rescue for Chelsea. Oscar put the best actor of the game award while Eden Hazard was able to put his team in the lead in extra time.
PSG suffered a lot during the game seeing Ibra sent off in the first half, seeing Chelsea awarded a penalty due to a handball on Thiago Silva, and playing only with ten men. Yet former Chelsea player, David Luiz came to the rescue in the first half while Thiago Silva was the hero in the second half and got his team through the next round.
The first goal did not come in until the 81 minute when Gary Cahill buried the ball past Salvatore Sirigu. A corner kick was given to Chelsea and as it came inside the box, Thiago Silva tried to clear. Sirigu thought about coming out and clearing the ball, but instead had faith in David Luiz but Eden Hazard beat Luiz as he brought it down with a header. Diego Costa then tried to go for goal but the ball bounced of his shin and Cahill allowed the ball to come to him, letting in bounce in front of him and saw a clear shot. With this Cahill got Chelsea up 1-0 (2-1 aggregate) with only nine minutes to go.
But six minutes later, the gods of soccer helped PSG out. A corner kick was given to PSG and as it came inside the box, David Luiz took the leap and headed in the ball past Courtois in the top right hand corner to make it 1-1 (2-2 in aggregate).
As the game headed into extra time, Chelsea saw them selves once again in the lead after the ref awarded them a penalty in the 96 minute. During a corner kick both Didier Drogba and Kurt Zouma went for the ball with their head and as Zouma went for the header, Thiago Silva also jumped for it but bounced of his arm. The ref called a penalty and Eden Hazard stepped up to take the penalty and make it a 2-1 score (3-2 in aggregate).
But in the 114 minute, the soccer gods once again helped PSG as Thiago Silva jumped high for the ball during a corner and saw the ball go over Courtois to make it a 2-2 game (3-3 in aggregate).
As the game came to an end, we saw PSG celebrate as they had advance to the Quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League thanks to the away goal rule. This for sure shows that PSG is a better team than they were 3-4 years and can do something big in the Champions league, depending on their next opponent. The man of the match goes out to Brazilian defender and captain, Thiago Silva for taking the huge leap and having faith in himself to get it past Courtois to get his team to the next round.