By RYAN TOLMICH
Down a man and down a goal on two separate occasions, Paris Saint-Germain have emerged from Stamford Bridge and into the Champions League quarterfinals.
Despite a red card to Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the 31st minute, PSG benefitted from a late winner off of Thiago Silva’s head to earn a 2-2 draw with Chelsea and advance to the quarterfinals on away goals.
In what turned out to be a fiery contest with tempers boiling over on multiple occasions, Ibrahimovic was controversially sent off in the first half for a tackle on Chelsea’s Oscar. Up an away goal, Chelsea were content to control the game, leading the way for Gary Cahill’s opener in the 81st minute.
David Luiz, who clashed numerous times with Diego Costa throughout the match, provided the equalizer just five minutes later on a leaping header, paving the way for extra time.
Just six minutes into the added periods, Eden Hazard gave Chelsea the go ahead goal from the penalty spot with Silva providing the infraction via a blatant handball.
The Brazilian redeemed himself in the 114th minute, looping a header inside the far left post to seal advancement for the Parisians.
Wednesday’s other matchup was much more clear-cut, as the fastest red card in Champions League history handed Bayern Munich the advantage it needed to secure passage into the quarterfinals.
The German club’s 7-0 drubbing of Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday slowly morphed into a clinic of passing and attacking moves by the home side. Shakhtar was always going to struggle when, with just 2:39 into the match, Oleksandr Kucher was sent off for bringing down Mario Gotze in a goal scoring situation.
The German midfielder darted behind the Shakhtar defense before Kucher caught up with him, only to bring him down. After some thinking, the referee determined it was enough for a red, and Thomas Mueller dispatched the penalty kick to begin the visitors’ nightmarish evening.
Mueller scored twice in the rout, his second coming as Bayern put the game away shortly after halftime. Franck Ribery dribbled inside from the left before combining with Alaba in a give-and-go and putting the ball in at the near post.
The Frenchman then chased down a through ball, putting the cross into the middle where Andriy Pyatov was only able to palm it away. Mueller picked up the rebound to finish in an open net for two goals in three minutes.
Holger Badstuber’s header, Robert Lewandowski’s near post finish from a long ball, and another from Gotze completed Bayern’s big night.
Overrated team (CFC), overrated league (EPL).
Maybe the EPL is overrated, does it really matter? Its great theatre on a weekly basis, and I can watch more EPL than I can my own domestic league without buying some expensive tv package. And the EPL also offers their players a fair minimum salary. Not much not to like from where I sit.
You get what you pay for. When your season ends in March it aint worth as much.
If EPL ends in March, then MLS doesn’t start until September.
But it doesn’t matter because we all probably watch all of it anyway.
…And U10’s in AYSO is great theater too….on the field and in the stands (the parents running up and down the side of the filed). It’s free and orange slices are fair compensation. Face it, the EPL is overrated.
….and of course Mourinho blames the referee and the players for not playing attacking football as he told them. Unreal.
It’s official (and has been for a while): Bundesliga = La Liga >>> Barclay’s Premier League
Maybe the top 2 teams from Bundesliga and La Liga are >>> BPL. On the whole though, I’d say that the BPL has stronger teams top to bottom.
Check the Europa league too and get back to me. Heck Dortmund in 10th ran away with Arsenal’s UCL group.
I’m not so sure, teams like Valencia, Sevilla and Villarreal are playing better football imho than Arsenal, Tottenham and Man U
people seem to forget: for so long the arguing point of the EPL was that it was strong like 1-10ish where as Bunds/Liga were perhaps more top heavy (1-5 are strong teams) and the french ligue (1-4 are strong). this is not the case anymore, 5-10 in the EPL aren’t bossing teams in cup games anymore. so while all the leagues’ top-end hierarchy may fluctuate, its’ really hard to tell if the 16th place team in EPL would definitely beat the 16th in the other leagues (Sunderland v Paderborn/Deportivo/Evian). who’s really rushing to put down $1,000 on Hull city beating OGC Nice/Elche/Hamburger SV………
so basically any argument based around “the top to bottom strength” of any league is pure speculation.
Nobody who says the EPL is stronger top to bottom than La Liga actually watches La Liga anyway. They just have a vague impression of Barcelona and Real Madrid slaughtering everybody in their league and make (false) assumptions.
Yeah that’s bogus. The away team having an extra 30 mins to score an away goal.
Having the referee on your side is also bogus, so Chelsea have no room to complain.
what would you rather them do John? after 90 it was 1-1; 2-2 agg. they both had an away goal, the score was even. they can’t just go home? they had to play 30 minutes of overtime. they both scored a goal so it ended 2-2 but PSG had scored 2 away goals. whats so hard to understand? how it that “bogus”. i’d seriously love to hear your response lol………. -_______-
proposals to eliminate the away goals rule in extra time have been around for a while now. the “solution” would be that away goals simply don’t count for more when scored in extra time. using yesterday’s game as an example, it would’ve gone to penalties, since the cumulative score ended up tied (3-3), and both teams scored 1 away goal in regulation time.
my opinion (that nobody asked for): the team that hosts the second leg has an inherent advantage anyway–it being the more “important” game–so i’m okay with the rule as it stands.
I didnt know the away goals rule is in affect even in extra time.
Why would extra time have anything to do with it?
There is no away goal rule in effect for MLS playoffs…different competitions, different (interpretation of) rules.
The away goals rule is used in the MLS playoffs last year for the first time. It’s a good rule and I’m glad MLS is finally using it.
All the Engerland people were trying to compensate for their national team’s mediocrity by saying “But the Premier League is still the best league in the world”.
That is no longer the case, the days of 3 out of 4 CL semi-finalists from the PL are long gone and are not coming back.
I think it’s safe to say that no one will miss Chelsea. Good riddance! Such an easy team to hate, from the owner, to the “special” manager, to the players. Ugh!
With Arsenal and Man City also on their way out, looks like no CL quarterfinal teams for the EPL and only Everton in the Europa league. Tough year.
Great Year!