Demba Ba, a PSG fan, says after scoring winning goal for Chelsea: 'It's the first time I've wished PSG lose and it's me who scores'

Blues now progress to the Champions League semi-finals after victory

Demba Ba scoops the ball into the roof of the net (Getty Images)

Not quite an accidental hero, but certainly an unexpected one. Given the way he has castigated his strikers even Jose Mourinho may have been surprised at the way Demba Ba transformed himself from a face in the shadows to a fox in the box on Tuesday night.

The loose-limbed Senegalese has spent less than 700 minutes on the pitch this season, not even eight full games, and scored just five goals prior to Tuesday night. At the start of the season Chelsea nearly off-loaded him to Arsenal and he is highly unlikely to be at the club next season.

But whatever his destination in the summer, he will now always be remembered at Stamford Bridge for scoring the goal that sent Chelsea into the last four of the Champions League for the seventh time in 11 seasons.

"I'm happy, I'm happy to have liberated us," said Ba. "I haven't been given my chance much this season and I've taken it. It's the first time I've wished PSG to lose, and it's me who scores the goal, luckily for Chelsea. I'm happy for Chelsea but it's hard to see [PSG] lose, especially with one of my best friends, Yohan Cabaye, on the other side.

"Eden [Hazard] kept telling me all day, 'It's your time tonight, it's your time tonight.' After the third goal in Paris everyone thought PSG were in the semi-final. Even my younger brothers kept telling me this, and then when Eden went off [the PSG fans] already thought they were in the semi-finals. We heard [them singing]: 'We're in the semifinals'."

Ba must have endured long mornings on the fringes at the training ground, long nights wondering where his career was going, and long afternoons on the bench this season. But though Mourinho appeared to have long given up on as a source of goals he said: "I'm not out for revenge, maybe he [Mourinho] doesn't have strikers to his liking, but I know that we have three great strikers and I think that a lot of clubs would like to have them."