PSG vs Chelsea: Blues must be wary of Paris’s great expectations

In football’s version of the Charles Dickens novel about the French Revolution, the roles have been abruptly reversed this year

Angel Di Maria (left) is proving Louis van Gaal wrong and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (right) has found his appetite (AFP)

War and Peace may have ended but A Tale of Two Cities is about to return. On Tuesday night, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain continue their London-versus-Paris mini-championship in the Champions League.

In football’s version of the Charles Dickens novel about the French Revolution, the roles have been abruptly reversed this year. In the knockout ties in 2014 and 2015, Chelsea were the footballing aristocrats. PSG, lavishly funded by Qatar, were hardly the sans culottes but they were certainly the underdogs.

This year, PSG, on a record 34-match unbeaten run in Ligue 1, have taken the role of the aristocrats. with Chelsea, struggling in the Premier League, the unlikely, billionaire-owned underdogs.

Under the management of the former France and Manchester United defender, Laurent Blanc, Paris have flattened all domestic opposition this season. With 22 victories after 25 games and a goal difference of 63-12, they are on course to smash all Ligue 1 records


 Laurent Blanc's side are flying in Ligue 1
 (Getty)

Ominously for struggling Chelsea, Blanc has rekindled the appetite of the veteran Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic (who was injured or bored for most of last season). He has scored 21 league goals and 27 in 32 appearances in all competitions.

Damningly for the Van Gaal era at Old Trafford, the Manchester United reject Angel Di Maria has emerged, after a slow start, as PSG’s most influential player. Blanc told France Football magazine last week: “Before Di Maria came, people said ‘PSG can’t win the Champions League’. Now they are saying, ‘with Di Maria, Paris can do it’.”

In the PSG-Chelsea serial to date, each club, to steal Charles Dickens’ first line, has enjoyed the “best of time and the worst of times”.

Chelsea came back from a 3-1 defeat in Paris to win on away goals by defeating PSG 2-0 at home in the quarter-finals in 2014. Last year in the last 16, PSG scored six minutes from the end of extra-time at Stamford Bridge to make the score 2-2 and win on away goals.

The “tie-breaker”, starting at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday, is pivotal for both clubs – but more so, arguably, for PSG than Chelsea. For Blues fans, victory over the two legs would be sweet after last year but would not compensate for a miserable Premier League campaign.

For PSG and Blanc, the tie is a big test of their progress and their credibility. Are they just mercenary flat-track bullies, crushing the inferior opposition in a domestic competition systematically stripped of its best players by the Premier League and La Liga? Or are PSG, with Di Maria and a reborn Ibrahimovic, genuine challengers to Barcelona and Bayern Munich for this year’s Champions League? The club’s Qatar owners think they already know the answer. Blanc’s contract was renewed for two years last week.

Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas, a frequent critic of PSG’s impact on French football, says that Blanc has received insufficient credit for his team’s domestic form. “He has managed to keep his players motivated in all competitions,” Aulas said.

“Even if you have the best players, you have to have an outstanding coach to dominate as they have done. It’s not easy to play with a squad which is entirely composed of stars. Laurent Blanc’s performance has been breathtaking.”

Like Louis van Gaal, Blanc speaks of his “philosophy” of football. Like Van Gaal, he believes that possession is nine-tenths of the game. Unlike Van Gaal’s United, PSG are stifling in defence and exciting in attack.


 Footballing aristocracy no more?
 (Getty)

The Brazilian-born Italian Thiago Motta, Blaise Matuidi of France and the young Italian Marco Verratti have emerged as tenacious and creative midfielders of Barcelona quality. The defence, built around Thiago Silva of Brazil, is strong but has rarely been stretched in the French league.

PSG can look vulnerable. In a pulsating game at the Vélodrome last weekend, Marseille dominated between the 20th and 70th minutes but lost 2-1 after a fine Di Maria goal.

Fans of other French clubs will be divided on Tuesday. Many think that PSG’s wealth and success is good for the French game. It has brought international stars to Ligue 1. The publicity, they believe, will increase TV earnings for all clubs.

Others are furious about the domination of a club which rarely shone until the Qatar government’s sports investment agency bought it in 2011. When Paris played last month at St Etienne, the local fans unfurled lengthy banners, carrying insulting messages attacking PSG’s owners and their alleged persecution of “real fans” at the Parc des Princes.

One read: “Dirty money accepted, freedoms trampled, the working class shunned, welcome to PSG.”

If Paris stumble against Chelsea, there may also be a backlash in the French press. The nouveau riche PSG have yet to get beyond the quarter-finals. If after five years of Qatari funding, Paris fail in Europe again, the rest of France’s domestic season will become a mournful procession to an obvious conclusion.

It may be time to sharpen the guillotine.