Jose Mourinho has hinted at Chelsea’s Champions League opponents Paris Saint-Germain being the ‘most aggressive’ team Chelsea has faced this season, including the likes of Shrewsbury Town from League Two. The two teams are set to meet for the second leg of their Champions League round-of-16 tie at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday after the first leg at Paris ended 1-1.
Mourinho insisted that the approach of the Ligue 1 champions in the first leg match at the Parc des Princes surprised him as he was expecting the French side to play ‘more football’.
The Blues boss said, “I was surprised in that game. I was surprised because a team with fantastic players was the team with a record number of fouls.
“That it was the team making foul after foul, was the team which stopped Eden Hazard with fouls all the time, was the team attacking the man in possession of the ball with two or three players with some very aggressive actions, a team where – even a player like Zlatan (Ibrahimovic), a typical attacking player – came back when they lost the ball and attacked Hazard from behind when we were countering.
“I thought an English team would never be surprised by aggression, because aggression we have in our country. This season we've played against sides form the Championship in the cups, against teams from League One, and Shrewsbury from League Two, but the most aggressive team was PSG.
“For me, that was a real surprise. With players of such quality, I was expecting more football and less aggression.”
PSG didn’t dominate first-leg: Mourinho
Mourinho also expressed his strong disagreement to PSG manager Laurent Blanc’s claims that Chelsea had been completely dominated in the first leg at France.
Mourinho said, “It depends upon your concept of football. What is domination? If that means chances, then yes. If that means making foul after foul, then they dominated. If moving the ball with aggression, yes they dominated. So they dominated in everything except the result.”
No special attention for Zlatan
The Chelsea boss also insisted that his team will not be paying any special attention to PSG’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic when the two teams meet on Wednesday.
He said, “I don't have a plan for him as he's very difficult to play against. He's such a good player but we're focused on the team.
“This is what we're going to do. We know Zlatan is a fantastic one. We're going to focus on the team and ourselves.”