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Chelsea v PSG


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Here is what I imagine will happen:
Mourinho will start cautiously, as we are already ahead.
Then they will have possession but will leave many gaps and Costa-Hazard-Cesc will miss at least 26 open goal chances.
5 more times they will be saved by the woodwork.
In the end they will score through Ibra after 86 minutes.
Courtois clearance finds Ibra's *ss and goes in.

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If they do score, I hope they score early.

We have a habit of conceding late this season against the big teams, especially when defending a lead, and that could be costly against PSG.

Still, I have confidence we will get the job done.

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If they do score, I hope they score early.

We have a habit of conceding late this season against the big teams, especially when defending a lead, and that could be costly against PSG.

Still, I have confidence we will get the job done.

its happened just twice against both the manchesters. thats it.

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By the way - 10 years ago today

Time really does fly...

My all-time favourite Chelsea game. Even though it was an opposition goal, Ronaldinho's strike absolutely blew me away.

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If they do score, I hope they score early.

We have a habit of conceding late this season against the big teams, especially when defending a lead, and that could be costly against PSG.

Still, I have confidence we will get the job done.

City and Utd way back in Oct? That's quite a bad habit we've got....

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I prefer Oscar over Willian, especially if Ramires is going to play RW.

Oscar has been absolutely useless these past games. He is good when inform but it's too risky to play him in such a big game since he basically did nothing the last month.
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Just rewatched the first leg and I was able to take notice of a few important details that I didn't notice before.

The first thing I paid close attention to was how PSG pressured our midfielders. In the first half David Luiz did a fantastic job of keeping Cesc, Willian and Hazard at bay. He was basically playing a zonal marking system where he sat on any of those players who came centrally to collect from deep. It was a strategy that seemed effective since none of them were effective at playing through the middle. If Luiz starts in the middle again I would suggest overloading the area on the pitch where Verratti is occupying, he seems to be the most rash and mistake prone of the three mids. I would also look to expand the pitch by utilizing our "wingers" on the touch line. Brana will definitely start since Apzi is usually the guy who sits deep and that we normally push on down our right to allow Hazard to have more freedom. This is the average shape I expect to see deployed if the same tactic is deployed by Jose.

1216584_Chelsea.jpg

The second thing I noticed is the amount of fouls that went unpunished. The ref was very lenient with a lot of overly aggressive PSG players namely, Verratti, Luiz, Van Der Wiel and Maxwell. If they are allowed to press relentlessly without drawing any cards we could be in for another long night. Most of our chances to break were diffused by PSG players who literally pulled back Chelsea players (Jerseys stretched). I saw this at least 3 times and it went without a yellow, normally cynical fouls like that draw warnings. If they were carded appropriately we would've nullified their pressed and unlocked them at least twice. I know the match will be cagey and will likely be played cautiously by both teams so its important that we are extremely incisive when we do get opportunities to break. WIllian(if he starts) and Costa will be so important to how we play, Willian if he is successful at breaking with pace and doesn't dwell on the ball too long. Costa if he can do a decent job playing with his feet and holding up the ball. We are not going to beat them over the top through the middle so i'm hoping the long ball approach we employed at times last game will be less utilized.

The third thing I took note of is how hard it was for us to keep ourselves compact at Parc Du Princes. It is a very big pitch 105m x 68m (Wembley 105 x 68, Old Trafford 105 x 68) compared to Stamford Bridge which is 103 x 67 and the difference was enough for them to find gaps of space to pull us about, mainly down the flanks but also just inside our own half where Luiz took up a DLP role and found channels to get the ball to Zlatan and Matuidi. We should have an easier time with gap control at home but something we will need to be mindful of is the positioning of Ramires and Fab, both players will need to be disciplined for us to be successful. I have a feeling PSG will start Pastore ahead of Lavezzi and if they do, Javier like to drift inside and link up with Zlatan. He is much better in the middle than he is on the flank so he's prone to getting caught drifting inside and both Ramires and Cesc will need to be mindful of him and also exploit the space he leaves on the flank. Our press should be much more effective with less ground to cover but the key is where we decide to activate the press. IMO we should look to press about ten yds inside our own half, this allows our defenders to keep a low block while giving PSG the space to get in behind our press just high enough where we can still be comfortable. Here is the shape I'd like to see for a medium press.

1216622_Chelsea.jpg

In this example the press should be initialized right around where Ramires and Cesc are with Azpilicueta and Willian the important players in trapping them. If we do this effectively and Zouma and Terry deal with the Aerial ability of Zlatan and Cavani(if they try and go more direct) we should be able to put sufficient amount of pressure on their FB's and CM's and force mistakes.

Just my opinion but having watched the game again I think we can get more out of it if we employ something close to this.

Either way UP THE CHELS!

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