Zlatan Ibrahimovic had a pretty rotten second leg at Stamford Bridge in the UEFA Champions League last season. The Swede striker made sure there would be no repeat of that Wednesday, scoring one and assisting in another to help Paris Saint-Germain get the better of Chelsea in the last 16 second leg and with it secure a place for the French champions in the Champions League quarterfinals with a 4-2 aggregate victory over the Blues.
Leading 2-1 from the first leg, PSG were always the favourites to go through against a Chelsea side desperate for some sort of redemption to a forgettable season, and the Parisians got off to the best start possible, scoring the opening goal of the second leg in just the 16th minute.
Adrien Rabiot was the man to put the ball into the back of the net, but it was Angel Di Maria and Ibrahimovic, who created the goal. Di Maria slid the ball in for Ibrahimovic on the right, with the big striker playing a perfect low cross for Rabiot to provide the comfortable finish.
Chelsea, though, got back on level terms in this second leg thanks to their best player on the pitch – Diego Costa. The Spain international was at the end of a counter, after Di Maria gave the ball needlessly away to Pedro.
A goal for Chelsea from there and the tie would have been level, but the loss of Costa to injury in the second half hit the London team hard, and Ibrahimovic put the tie to bed on 67 minutes, volleying home a cross from Di Maria.
"In terms of the result, the game itself and the fact we went through, it was a positive match," PSG manager Laurent Blanc told UEFA's official website. "We didn't necessarily think we would be able to deliver such a good performance away from home.
"But I think we controlled the game from start to finish, even when we conceded, we weren't overly worried. We kept playing the same way and it enabled us to have an easier night than maybe expected.
"We showed real quality and we were very effective in attack. It was a great challenge to come here to win. I thought it would be harder this year but that's twice now we've won the tie here. It's a sign that we're making progress in Europe."
Guus Hiddink bemoaned the fact that Chelsea gave PSG too much respect in the beginning, which proved to be the difference. "I'm disappointed," the Dutchman said. "When you analyse the game we started too respectfully in the first ten to 15 minutes, but they are a team who know the short possession game very well and you must be careful not to be outplayed in the first part of the match.
"We were too respectful, but later on, at 1-0 down, we lost that respect and we tried to defend more forcefully, we won duels and we got a deserved equaliser. There were chances at both ends after that in the first half. In the second half we pushed, we tried to make it 2-1. We had chances to score in the 65th minute, we didn't do so and in the 67th minute with a little attack they killed the game."
