A late strike from Demba Ba sealed a 2-0 win over PSG and saw Chelsea reach the Champions League semi-final stage for the 7th time in 11 years.
Chelsea, who trailed 3-1 from the first leg, took the lead in the first half through substitute Andre Schurrle, but they had to wait for the crucial second that sent them through. With just three minutes left, Ba managed to scramble to ball home to send the Blues through to the semis and the home crowd into wild celebrations.
Jose Mourinho sprinted down to join the celebrating players after Demba Ba’s goal. It was almost a carbon copy of his run down the touchline at Old Trafford in 2004 when in charge of Porto.
That kind of win looked unlikely in the opening stages after a lacklustre first 20 minutes for the Blues. To top that off, Eden Hazard picked up an injury and had to come off after just 18 minutes, with Schurrle coming on in his place.
The forced change proved to be an inspiration to the home side’s chances of success as Schurrle put the Blues in front. The PSG defence failed to deal with a long throw from Branislav Ivanovic, and David Luiz teed up the German to fire Chelsea ahead and set them on their way to the comeback.
In the second half, the only thing keeping PSG in the competition was the woodwork, with two Chelsea efforts bouncing off the bar and back in to play. Man of the moment Schurrle beat keeper Salvatore Sirigu but saw his strike come back off the framework. Oscar then suffered the same fate as his great free kick also came back off the bar.
With just under 25 minutes to go, Mourinho sent on Ba for Frank Lampard. 15 minutes later Fernando Torres came on for Oscar to join Samuel Eto’o up front, as Chelsea chased a second goal.
PSG couldn’t take their chances on the break, and Chelsea’s pressure finally told when Ba found the net to put Chelsea back in the lead in the tie. PSG then raced forward but Petr Cech was on hand to ensure Chelsea made the semi-finals for the third time under Mourinho.
After the game, the manager explained his touchline run after Ba’s goal. He said he did it, “Not to celebrate – to tell Fernando and Demba the changes we had to do, because there was still three minutes plus added time and with that amount of time left, playing like we were playing, it was too risky. I wanted to use my two freshest players for a different job in the last period.
“We did enough in the beginning of the second half to score, but we couldn’t and after that there was a bit of a contradiction in terms of what PSG are and what they were saying yesterday – they played pure counter-attack, with no ball possession, just getting behind using counter-attack and closing everything.
“It was difficult for us to penetrate in that second part of the second half, so I played Demba and Fernando. We had looked at different systems yesterday and the players knew what to do. Demba made a crucial finish for us and I think it was very much deserved.
“The team that decided to defend was punished. The team that gave everything, sometimes with their hearts, deserved to go through to the semis.”
LCN Man of the Match: Gary Cahill