Chelsea face PSG in Champions League clash

Chelsea's Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois (right) participates in a team training session at the club's complex in Cobham, Surrey on February 15, 2016. Chelsea play Paris St-Germain in the last-16 round of matches in the Champions League on February 16, 2016. PHOTO | AFP

What you need to know:

  • Two months have passed since the draw for the Champions League last 16 was made and much has changed in that time as Paris Saint-Germain prepare to meet Chelsea in one of the headline ties on Tuesday.
  • When the sides were paired together for the third successive season in December’s draw at UEFA’s Swiss headquarters, PSG appeared the undisputed favourites.

LONDON

Two months have passed since the draw for the Champions League last 16 was made and much has changed in that time as Paris Saint-Germain prepare to meet Chelsea in one of the headline ties on Tuesday.

When the sides were paired together for the third successive season in December’s draw at UEFA’s Swiss headquarters, PSG appeared the undisputed favourites.
That was as much down to Chelsea’s travails as PSG’s almost flawless form, but just three days later Jose Mourinho was sacked and the Premier League side have since begun a steady recovery under Guus Hiddink.

They remain in the bottom half of the Premier League but they have gone 12 games unbeaten, including a 5-1 thumping of Newcastle United on Saturday as Diego Costa scored his eighth goal in that time.

“Now we have more confidence to go there and to play. Paris have a great team, great players, but we go there to try to win the game,” Willian told Chelsea-bad shape, with a 1-0 loss at Real Madrid in the group stage their only defeat in 39 games this season.

They have not lost a domestic match since March last year and had won 16 games in a row before a 0-0 draw with Lille on Saturday, when coach Laurent Blanc decided to rest top scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic, captain Thiago Silva, Thiago Motta and Maxwell.

INFLUENTIAL MIDFIELDER

However, PSG’s build-up to the match has been overshadowed after defender Serge Aurier was suspended for insulting Blanc and many of his team-mates in a video posted on social media.

Aurier would have started, as would highly influential midfielder Marco Verratti, who Blanc says is not fit enough having featured sparingly in a wearying run of 12 games in the last six weeks.

“They (Chelsea) didn’t have a match last midweek, unlike us. The Champions League merits more preparation than we have been able to put in as we have been playing every three days,” complained Blanc, whose side beat Chelsea in the last 16 a year ago after losing in the quarter-finals in 2014. Hiddink says he will not take any risks on captain John Terry, who came off injured against Newcastle, while Kurt Zouma is out for the season with a knee injury.

Roma and Real Madrid, meanwhile, have both changed coaches since they were paired together with the first leg of their tie at the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday.

Madrid came through their group unbeaten and ahead of PSG, but Rafa Benitez was sacked at the start of January with his team lagging behind in the Spanish title race and the legendary Zinedine Zidane has since come in, overseeing five wins and a draw in La Liga.

At Roma, French coach Rudi Garcia was fired last month after a run of one win in 10.

He has been replaced by Luciano Spalletti, who twice took Roma to the Champions League quarter-finals during a previous stint as coach, including in 2008 when the Giallorossi beat Real in the last 16.