Europa League Semi Finals
Leg 2 - Parc des Princes - 28-4-10
Parc des Princes stared and watched. The two teams came out for the Europa League Anthem. PSG and Chelsea, more like David and Goliath. The Europa League Semi Final, a huge occasion for a side like PSG. We are having an amazing year but no one expected this kind of success. Even if we exit I will still be extremely proud of every single player. We lost the first leg at Stamford Bridge 3-2 conceding two goals in the last 10 minutes, so one solitary goal could win the tie.
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Kalou was out due to his loan clause stating he can't play against the loanee club, Felipe returned from his broken hand, so we lined up like this:
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The team talk was tough, I told the boys of how proud I was, that we came this far, beating the likes of Rangers, Werder Bremen and Benfica. Chelsea were a huge club, and no one would be disappointed if we lost. I would only be disappointed if we didn't try. A goal down we had nothing to lose, and it didn't matter if we lost by 1 goal or 10 goals, as long as we tried our best. Sakho stepped up before we walked out and got the boys ready, he does his captain job brilliantly, and at only 21 what more can you ask. They walked out next to the Chelsea players, the likes of Lampard, Terry and Drogba, intimidating players. Everyone was ready on the pitch, the keepers were ready, the linesmen were ready, and the ref blew the starting whistle. The game was underway.
We kicked off, but straight away you could see the difference in quality, Chelsea were calm and collected, we were frantic and nervous. A free kick in the 5th minute gave me a chance to talk to Henry. He rushed over and I told him, "F*** it mate, go out there and have fun, this is your chance to shine again, play how you want, tell the others to have fun and don't worry about the result." The free kick was taken and it resulted in a Zhirkov shot, but straight at Felipe. After that the play evened out, we looked like we were having fun, Nene was tearing up in the centre, taking on 3 players at a time and beating all 3, Sessegnon was combining well with Hlousek, constantly switching sides and confusing the defence. It didn't do much, but it balanced out the game a bit more. 15 minutes in and Chelsea had a second chance, but Felipe saved Drogba's low drive.
A good save from Felipe frustrating Drogba
We got our first chance of the game through Bodmer after some nice build up play from Nene and Henry. Henry knocked it out to the right for Nene to cross, and it was straight to Bodmer, but he could only head wide. We started to gradually come into the game more, with Henry livening up, dropping deep and getting a fair amount of possession. A Lampard corner ended up with Drogba just heading over the bar. Felipe knocked the goal kick to Kompany, who knocked it to Sakho. Sakho out wide to Armand, back in to Annan, back to Sakho. The play was building up nicely. I screamed to get it wide. Sakho to Bodmer, he knocked a lovely ball in behind Bosingwa for Hlousek. He turned back and knocked it in to the centre for Henry. Henry played a dream ball through for Sessegnon, and all he had to do was beat Cech. He did, 1-0, PSG lead the game. I jumped in the air, and high fived my assistant manager. We were ahead on away goals, 3-3 in the tie.
Oh Sessegnon!
The responded with a chance through Carvalho. After some nice play by Zhirkov down the left, he tried the cross, but Ceara blocked the cross. Zhirkov curled in the corner and Carvalho got up a head at goal, but it went over, but why wasn't he marked, Felipe and I got stuck into the defence. They had two more chances through Drogba and Lampard in the next 10 minutes, but were unable to convert their chances. With 3 minutes till halftime, Mikel had another chance for Chelsea, but he sprayed the shot wide. Zhirkov received a yellow seconds before halftime for a rough challenge on Armand.
Halftime
1-0
The halftime team talk was easy for the boys, short and sweet, all I said was that, "If we keep playing like we are, we have a high chance of conceding, but we will also score, so we try to score a second, and then we defend like crazy, a second goal means they need 2 goals to go through, so that will leave them desperate and their lead up play will get messy. So one more goal if we can, then DEFEND! I know it's bad football, but that's what we have to do to get the win, I know it isn't pretty, but at the end of the day, that's how we might win this game. The second half didn't differ from the first, Chelsea dominated a bit, but we hit on the counter. Anelka sent a header over the bar 3 minutes in for the first chance of the half. Hlousek continued to terrorise Bosingwa out on the left, and it resulted in some sloppy defensive play. Hlousek again advanced with the ball, but lost out to Bosingwa who passed it straight to Annan after some Hlousek pressure. Annan played it to Bodmer who advanced 5 metres before playing it to Henry. Henry took it on the bounce, turned Terry at the back and struck the ball on the half volley from the edge of the box. It crept past Cech's hand into the bottom left corner. 2-0, now that's what I wanted.
Henry ready to hit it
Automatically the boys knew what to do, they pulled back and allowed Chelsea some possession. Chelsea manager Juande Ramos' frustration showed as his team could not find a way through the PSG brick wall. They managed to get 3 or 4 chances in in the next 10 minutes, but nothing came of it. Bosingwa was beaten by Hlousek again in the 65th minute and this time took him out, resulting in a yellow card for the right back. With 20 minutes left Nene made way for Clement, and we now played with a 4-2-2-2, with a packed defence. They hit the post through Ashley Cole in their biggest chance of the half, yet still couldn't find a way past Felipe, who was playing excellent. Camara came on for the tired Bodmer with 10 to go, and Kompany pushed into the centre midfield role. Within 1 minute of our last substitution Henry was taken out by Essien, not a terrible challenge, just bad the way Henry came out of it. Henry had to go off. So I pulled Hlousek back into an AM role, and we had no strikers with 10 men on the field. They produced a few more shots, but you got the feeling that nothing was changing. With 1 minute left Lampard produced the final shot of the game, but it went wide, that summed up the game for Chelsea, good lead up, no finishing touches. And with that it was over, we are through to the Europa League Final against all odds.
Up for grabs!
The MOM award goes to Thierry Henry, he played amazingly today, he looked like a little kid when he scored his goal, the biggest smile on his face. He played how he wanted, and when he got the ball he dictated the play. 1 assist and 1 goal for the golden oldie today. The team and I partied all night, knowing that we have a game in only 2 more days, the French Cup Final, but we don't care...
much, we have a bigger final to worry about now. We will find out or Final Opponents on the 4th of May when Bayern and Arsenal play. The first leg was 2-0 to Arsenal at the Emirates.
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29-4-10