Chelsea 2 PSG 2: 'We deserved to be punished with this defeat,' says Jose Mourinho
'We didn't deserve to go through,' manager said
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Jose Mourinho admitted his Chelsea team could not “cope with the pressure” after they tumbled out the Champions League on away goals against ten-men Paris Saint-Germain.
The Chelsea manager pulled no punches with his players who drew 2-2 after extra-time with PSG, despite the visitors having Zlatan Ibrahimovic erroneously sent off after 31 minutes. Twice PSG came from behind with goals from David Luiz and Thiago Silva while Chelsea failed to put the game out of sight, drawing the tie 3-3 on aggregate.
Mourinho said that he hoped the red card for Ibrahimovic would be rescinded to allow him to play in the quarter-finals. Nevertheless, he said that an off-the-ball elbow by David Luiz on Diego Costa should be punished by Uefa.
Mourinho said he would see his players at 1pm tomorrow at the training ground to begin the inquest into how they failed to win the game against ten men. “I want to know. I told the players after the game that it's not the moment to speak with them about it. It's the moment for them to go home and tomorrow we'll try to analyse that. For me, it was a surprise. I'm disappointed.
“But I try always to be pragmatic and when the opponent were better than us, the first feeling is we deserved to lose. Analysing the situation is the next step. First step is to be pragmatic and honest and say we didn't deserve to go through. We must have pride because we hurt, and we need to react. We have a Premier League to win. I told that to the players.
“We lost a competition where, even if we'd won, we'd have other important steps in front of us and other big teams to beat. We lost a competition and, at this moment, we have the Premier League to win and we're in a good situation. There's no time to cry. No time also to laugh.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments