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Blues on verge of European exit


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Chelsea are facing elimination from the Champions League after suffering a 3-1 defeat against Paris St-Germain.

Though the optimists will point the way of the Blues’ incredible comeback win over Napoli en route to lifting the trophy in 2012, Javier Pastore’s stoppage time goal to looks to have put the tie beyond José Mourinho’s men.

Ezequiel Lavezzi gave the home side the perfect start when he lashed a brilliant finish beyond Petr Cech with just four minutes played, but Eden Hazard replied from the penalty spot to deservedly restore parity for the visitors - just moments before hitting the post with a splendid volley.

But a dismal showing after the break was punished when David Luiz conceded a free-kick out wide for a needless foul on Blaise Matuidi, with the Brazilian heading into his own goal from Lavezzi’s resultant delivery.

And things went from bad to worse as substitute Pastore rifled past Cech at his near post to leave Chelsea facing a mammoth challenge at Stamford Bridge next Tuesday.

It was a night to forget for Cech, who was arguably at fault for both of the French club’s goals after the break. Though he could do nothing about Lavezzi’s magnificent opener, he mistakenly opted to stay on his line as Luiz hacked the ball into his own goal on the hour mark, though admittedly he was surrounded by a sea of bodies.

On his 100th European appearance of the club, the Czech goalkeeper was most definitely culpable as he was beaten from an obscene angle at his near post by Pastore’s late drive to leave the Blues in a perilous situation.

This will be a night to forget for Mourinho and his side, who, on the back of a shock defeat against Crystal Palace to effectively end their Premier League title challenge, needed a positive performance and result to resurrect their fading season.

Instead, those two second half strikes have consigned the Blues to a damaging defeat that threatens to leave the club trophyless for the first time since 2011.

This was a disaster of an evening for Chelsea, though the Blues will take positives from various comeback wins against the odds in the past, and with Samuel Eto’o hopefully restored to full fitness the West London outfit do have a small chance of pulling off an unlikely reversal.

With the score intriguingly set at 2-1 heading into four minutes of stoppage time, Mourinho would have been confident of his side's chances of progressing, but those hopes took a significant blow with Pastore's late third. That goal seemed to suck all the life out of Chelsea's players, who were visibly dejected at full-time.

Their chances will be helped by muscle injuries sustained by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marco Verratti late on which may rule them out of the return leg in six days' time, but in truth the tie seems to be beyond the Blues, who were devoid of any invention and flair for large periods of the game.

Hazard was the one shining late as he calmly beat Salvatore Sirigu from the penalty spot to level matters, and his magnificent volley mere minutes later was a coat of paint away from nestling in the far corner.

But besides the Belgian, Chelsea were lackadaisical in an offensive sense and the way Pastore was able to dribble beyond myriad defenders late on leaves much to be desired at the opposite end of the pitch also. It will take something truly special from Mourinho and Chelsea to turn this around.

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Didn't expect us to go through with Eto'o out and Matic cup tied, but I was very disappointed with that terrible 2nd half performance.

My mood has been totally deflated recently in general. Just a couple of weeks ago everyone was so optimistic and we were favorites for the league and happy with the CL draw, but we've now lost a couple on the trot and we don't look as good as I thought we were.

Our problems have been totally exposed again. No strikers, overly reliant on Hazard, and atrocious midfield play without Matic.

Not even mad if we go out next week because I don't think we had a shot at the CL this season anyways. Will help us in the more important competition to have fewer matches. I really think we can win all of our remaining matches.

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