Righting the past: PSG seek Champions League revenge at Chelsea

The French side were knocked out by the Blues at the same stage last year

LONDON: Eleven months on from their last visit to Chelsea's Stamford Bridge, Paris Saint-Germain return on Wednesday looking for confirmation of their place among the Champions League elite.

In last season's quarter-finals, PSG came to London with a 3-1 lead from the first leg and with a huge 13-point advantage at the Ligue 1 summit, only to crash out after Demba Ba's 87th-minute strike took Chelsea through on away goals.

This season, a round earlier, the tie is even more evenly-balanced at 1-1, and it is Chelsea who are dominating domestically, five points clear in the Premier League with a game in hand, while in France, PSG trail Lyon by a point.

But in contrast to last season's London trip, PSG have Zlatan Ibrahimovic fit and in form, with the giant Swede having scored his third goal in four games and provided a delightful assist for Javier Pastore in Saturday's 4-1 defeat of Lens.

Laurent Blanc's side have now gone 14 games without defeat in all competitions and despite their failure to recapture last season's heights, they remain in contention for an unprecedented four-trophy haul.

"Of course we have belief against Chelsea," said Blanc. "We're in an unfavourable situation because they scored that famous goal [Ba's goal] that meant Paris didn't reach the semi-finals for the second year in a row. But we have to do the same thing as them. If we're as clinical as Chelsea were, I'll take it."

With PSG's owners, Qatar Sports Investments, having taken over at the Parc de Princes eight years after Roman Abramovich first brought his roubles to Stamford Bridge, the French champions have had to face the barrier of Financial Fair Play (FFP), which Chelsea did not have to worry about when Jose Mourinho was building the first great team of the Abramovich era.

The FFP sanctions that PSG were hit with last year restricted their close-season transfer activity, but they were nonetheless able to splash out an astonishing €50 million to sign David Luiz from Chelsea.

The Brazil centre-back aimed a tongue-in-cheek barb at Mourinho earlier this week, responding to a question about what made the 'Special One' so special by saying: "But he's special for you, not for me."

Chelsea have had over a week to prepare for the game, having not played at the weekend, and centre-back Gary Cahill says they have left no stone unturned. "We've been able to really work on specific things in preparation for it," the England defender, whose side hope to reach the last eight for the fourth time in five years, told the Chelsea website.

 

Bayern eye quarter-final berth

Bayern Munich have a "duty" to reach the Champions League's quarter-finals when they host Shakhtar Donetsk with everything to play for, according to goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

Donetsk held Bayern to a goalless draw in their last 16 first leg in Ukraine last month and Neuer says the 2013 Champions League winners have a duty to reach the last eight as they bid to win a sixth European title.

"The game simply has to be won, nothing else comes into question for us," said the 28-year-old Neuer. "We like a situation like this. It's our duty to progress. To bow out would be fatal, but we are thinking positively."

Bayern's injured captain Philipp Lahm returned to team training on Monday after fracturing his ankle last November and echoed Neuer's sentiments. "We are deserved favourites when we play against many opponents and our own performance dictates whether or not we can be counted among the top teams," Lahm told German magazine Kicker.

Meanwhile, Shakhtar travel to Munich on the back of a 2-2 draw against Metalist Kharkiv in the Ukraine Premier League on Saturday and their coach Mircea Lucescu said a similar performance would see them "doomed" at the Allianz Arena.

 

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