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Paris Saint-Germain 3 Chelsea 1. Jose Mourinho put the boot into the Blues following a dire display against Paris Saint-German, which leaves them on the brink of elimination from the Champions League.
Chelsea's 3-1 defeat in the French capital was labelled a "joke" by Mourinho, who described his defence as "ridiculous" and "sloppy". As for his forwards, Mourinho gave a damning assessment of their contribution, muttering: "If we had their strikers we'd be winning things, of course."
It was Javier Pastore's injury time goal that made Mourinho mad and left Chelsea with a mountain to climb when the two side reconvene at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday. Up until then, the Blues had just about done enough to leave themselves confident of progressing to the last four of the competition.
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Ezequiel Lavezzi had given the Parisians the lead on four minutes with a half-volley only for Chelsea to equalize on 27 minutes from the penalty spot. Thiago Silva's clumsy challenge on Oscar left referee Milorad Mazic with no option, and Eden Hazard made no mistake with his spot-kick.
Hazard was the pick of the Chelsea players in Paris, the Belgian almost giving the visitors the lead at the end of the first-half when his angled volley struck the bottom of the post.
Chelsea were on top going into the break but they were soon trailing in the second half when David Luiz, who had a tough time of it playing in a deep-lying midfield role, put into his own net from a free-kick he had conceded.
A 2-1 defeat in Paris wouldn't have been such a bad result for the Blues, particularly given that PSG's star striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, had limped off with a hamstring injury and could be out for a month. But then in injury time Pastore danced his way through Chelsea's static defence before beating Petr Cech at his near post. "The third goal was a joke," fumed Mourinho. "Not a goal, a joke. It was ridiculous. We scored an own goal and we enjoyed the third goal with Pastore, because the third goal was about Pastore - and us."
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Labelling his side's defensive performance overall as "sloppy", Mourinho then appeared to turn his wrath on Fernando Torres, who came on for Andre Schurrle on the hour mark but contributed little to Chelsea's performance. "I'm not happy with my strikers' performances, so I have to try things," explained Mourinho when asked why he'd started with Schurrle up front.
"With top strikers at this level, it's one chance equals one goal. We don't have that... with Andre, at least I know we have one more player to have the ball. He's not a striker but the team can have control of the ball possession."
Mourinho has never lost at this stage of the Champions League but if Chelsea are to make it eight out eight quarter-final triumphs for the Special One they'll have to put in a display similar to the one that saw them pull off a stunning comeback against Napoli in the last 16 of the 2011/2012 competition. "We have nothing to lose now," said Mourinho. "We have to play thinking that it's possible and that means one way, by going for it. We are not out, no. We will try."
