P.S.G. Handle Slumping Chelsea in UCL

 3-1 

Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain faced off today in a Champions League match in the French capital.  P.S.G. are well in control of Ligue 1 while Chelsea are in trouble of letting the Premier League slip away.  Over the weekend Chelsea were stunned by Crystal Palace and today they looked to get past that embarrassing defeat with a win in the first-leg of the UCL quarter-final.

P.S.G. took the lead in the early moments of the match when Chelsea captain John Terry made a poor clearance off the line.  Terry headed the ball short and it fell right to Lavezzi inside the box.  In one motion Lavezzi brought the ball down with a chest-trap before finishing with a volley (3').

Chelsea were able to respond when P.S.G. captain Thiago Silva missed his slide-tackle inside the box.  Oscar drew the foul to earn a penalty and Eden Hazard scored from the spot (27' P).  Up to that point in the match the referee had been, to put it nicely, inconsistent.  Though on this occasion the call was correct and the first-half ended on level terms.

Chelsea's starting striker Schürrle was not having any impact on the game and in the second-half he was removed for the more prototypical center-forward Torres.  However, before he had a chance to influence the match Chelsea conceded an own-goal.  A free-kick for P.S.G. near the corner flag was sent into the box by Lavezzi and David Luiz turned the ball into his own net to put Chelsea behind again (61').

After retaking the lead P.S.G. were able to take control for the rest of the match.  Not everything went their way though as a pair of injuries to key players forced changes to the side.  First Ibrahimovic pulled up holding the back of his thigh indicating a probable hamstring injury.  He went straight to the locker room after coming off the field which is a bad indication for the seriousness of the injury.  Later Marco Verratti came off after a collision in midfield, but he was able to watch the rest of the match from the bench.

In the final moments of the match P.S.G. were able to add another goal from their final substitute Javier Pastore.  Making a run along the Chelsea end-line, Pastore manage to dribble around Azpilicueta and Lampard to work a shot from a tight angle, beating keeper Cech at the near-post (90 +3').

The deficit is not insurmountable for Chelsea who will have a chance to redeem themselves next week at Stamford Bridge.  Chelsea did manage to score an important away goal which could prove to be their life-line in the second-leg.  Also in their favor is the possible absence of Ibrahimovic who may not be able to play when the two meet again.

Barcelona Reach UCL Semi-Final

3-3 

The score was level coming into today's Champions League match between Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, with a slight advantage to Barcelona with two away-goals.  Messi was unfit to start the match, still recovering from a hamstring problem picked up last time these teams met.  

By half-time Barcelona controlled over 60% of possession and worked more shots than P.S.G., but much of that possession was behind midfield and only one of the shots was on target.  Also when Barcelona did have the ball forward there was usually no more than one player in the box.  True the burden was on P.S.G. to score, but the Barcelona offense was clearly missing the creativity of Messi.  

After half-time P.S.G. took the lead for the first time in this quarterfinal.  During a counter-attack, Javier Pastore was played in behind the Barcelona defense by a cutting through-ball.  With loads of space the midfielder scored to put P.S.G. up 3-2 on aggregate (50').  

When the goal came, Messi started to get loose and entered the match with about half-an-hour left, replacing a rather ineffective Fabregas.  With Messi on the field Barcelona played with more confidence and scored the equalizer.  David Villa had the ball in the P.S.G. penalty area and was able to lay off a pass to Pedro just outside the box.  Running right at goal, Pedro ripped the shot first-time to beat keeper Sirigu and reclaim the aggregate lead (71').  

Though P.S.G. never actually lost to Barcelona over the two match span, the two away-goals Barcelona scored in Paris were the difference.