Champions League: Chelsea's grit shines through

QUARTER-FINAL, SECOND LEG

CHELSEA 2 (Andre Schuerrle 32, Demba Ba 87)

PARIS ST GERMAIN 0

3-3 on aggregate, Chelsea win on away goals

It didn't turn out to be so impossible after all, as Jose Mourinho earlier suggested.

With a late goal by Demba Ba to add on to Andre Schuerrle's first-half opener, Chelsea dumped Paris Saint-Germain out of the Champions League and progressed to the semi-finals.

The 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge yesterday morning (Singapore time) was enough to cancel out a 3-1 deficit from the first leg, as the Blues went through on the away-goals rule.

It's a reminder of Chelsea's immense mental strength.

It must also serve as a warning to their Premiership title rivals, Liverpool and Manchester City, that they cannot be discounted from the race this early.

This was a victory that required guts and finesse.

The concepts of keeping it tight at the back and going all out at the other end, when combined, are in conflict.

It's an extremely fine balance that Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho needed to strike.

That, they did with aplomb.

Experience told, said PSG coach Laurent Blanc, as he rued the thin margin of winning and losing.

Mourinho had the help of some of the most battle-hardened warriors in the game.

Frank Lampard, John Terry and Petr Cech formed the core of Chelsea's success during the Portuguese's first stint in London, and they were again at the centre of Chelsea's comeback against PSG.

Focus

Cech kept his concentration during a busy 90 minutes to come to his side's rescue on several occasions, including pulling off a fine stop from Marquinhos right at the death.

Terry led by example, leading the backline expertly, while Lampard showed that he has lost none of the zest that made him one of the best scoring midfielders England has seen.

It wasn't all smooth sailing, however.

Mourinho had to gamble like he did on so many European nights, and it paid off spectacularly.

He certainly didn't count on his best player of the season, Eden Hazard, to pull up injured as early as the 18th minute.

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as Hazard's replacement, Schuerrle, popped up with the opening goal less than 14 minutes after coming on.

While his first substitution was a matter of necessity, his second revealed a spirit of risk-taking.

Remember, one sucker punch from PSG was all it would take to knock Chelsea out of their stride.

But Ba's replacement of Lampard in the 66th minute, with the intention of packing one more striker into PSG's penalty box, was at the expense of their midfield's defensive shape.

Likewise, Fernando Torres' introduction in place of Oscar in the 81st minute.

PSG suddenly found themselves faced with three out-and-out strikers from a team needing just one more goal to turn the tie around.

As it turned out, Ba knocked in the crucial goal three minutes from time.

As blue shirts piled on top of one another in celebration of their feat, Mourinho sprinted the length of the field at an instant.

It was not, he explained, a spontaneous outburst of joy as some thought.

Rather, he saw an immediate need to hand out instructions to his strikers, to alter their positions in order to hold out for the remaining three minutes plus injury time.

At times, he makes football seem such a calculated sport, as if he is a mathematician who has a formula for every situation.

But once again, he got it so right.

This article was published on April 10 in The New Paper.

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