The unfortunate Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers made one bad decision in the Champions League game between Chelsea and Paris St Germain and he didn’t recover from it.
The victims, Laurent Blanc’s PSG side however did so in the most heroic and sensational manner. First they saw Zlatan Ibrahimovic harshly dismissed in the first half, even though he seemed more sinned against than sinner.
Having played the best part of an hour with the men, they were seconds away from elimination when trailing 1-0 in the dieing minutes of the 90, but forced extra time with a late equalizer.
As the 30 minutes added time faded away, they were once more on the brink of elimination but an enormous looping header from Thiago Silva, who had earlier conceded a penalty, flew over Thibault Courtois and into the bulging Chelsea net.
Overcoming adversity was the theme of their night.
That made a tempestuous game 2-2 on the night with Paris advancing on the away goals rule. It was no more than a sullen and out-of-sorts Chelsea side deserved. If they had put as much effort into using their man advantage as they did into securing it, they would have won this game.
That first key decision made by referee Kuipers changed the game. Chelsea midfielder Oscar and PSG’s Swedish superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic both seemed to launch into a first half tackle with their legs stretched out and their studs up.
Oscar came out worst if his rolling around on the floor was any guide. The crowd yelled and the referee showed Ibrahimovic the red card. The Dutch official very much seemed to be influenced by both the Chelsea players and the crowd. Six blue shirts surrounded the referee straight away.
Replays showed the decision to be – if anything – even worse. Ibrahimovic pulled his studs out at the last minute whereas one of Oscar’s legs had remained stretched to the full.
It seemed an orchestrated protest which was perhaps designed with Nemanja Matic’s red card for reacting to being fouled in an EPL game in mind. The team had seemingly decided pressurizing the referee was a collective act. For his dissent after Ibrahimovic’s red, PSG’s Thiago Motta was also yellowed by the Dutch official.
Oscar himself was finally booked several minutes later and then shortly after dragged an opponent down by the shoulder, for which he could have received a second yellow.
The PSG players had to control their reactions but their traveling fans did not, and belted out a very loud and very defiant version of La Marseillaise, the French national anthem.
With the man advantage, Chelsea went looking for a lead and could have arguably had a first half penalty.
Cavani probably did clip Diego Costa but it was no more contact than the Spaniard had already received in the same dribble and stayed on his feet, the difference being the other tackles were outside the box. The Spaniard over elaborated and received no reward.
Former Chelsea player David Luiz had been continuing a verbal battle with Branislav Ivanovic until half time and was caught shoving him in the tunnel as the players emerged for the second half. Ivanovic laudably controled his reaction to the provocation.
During the interval, Willian sensibly replaced Oscar who was on a yellow, well actually a bright orange card. It was a smart move by Mourinho to avoid the expected make up call that would have seen Oscar dismissed.
With the man advantage, Chelsea began to apply pressure. Paris, the side needing a goal, were reduced to thumping the ball long to Edson Cavani. Those efforts were reliably pouched by Thibaut Courtois in the Chelsea goal.
Ramirez was booked and the game briefly lit up when PSG forced successive corners in front of their own fans. That sparked a fire in the French side and they started to believe they could score that goal which would force extra time
Cavani missed a superb chance when Courtois showed excellent positional skills to force him to round the Belgian keeper, making the angle too tight for a shot. Had Cavani been more confident, he may have tried to slide the ball under, or over, or out of reach of the keeper.
Javier Pastore tested Courtois next, again from an angle. Diego Costa was then booked for a nasty tackle on Thiago Silva. Luiz also received a yellow for his reaction (a needless chest bump on Costa) before PSG’s Italian midfielder Marco Verratti followed them into the book within a minute. At that point, nobody would have bet on even 21 men finishing the game, so petulant was the player behaviour.
The referee had made a mistake but frankly the players were a disgrace. Soon after though, the crowd had some football to discuss.
Ramirez finally tested Salvatore Sirigu in the PSG goal before Gary Cahill, one of the Chelsea players who should be able to face his children tonight, thumped in the game’s first goal against the run of play.
Argentinian substitute Ezequiel Lavezzi almost equalised from a corner with a powerful header that was too close to the goalkeeper. Courtois had to work again to turn a Pastore cross over. Chelsea did not heed either warning.
From that corner, ex-Chelsea player and pantomime villain Luiz thumped in a powerful header shrugging off his tunnel nemesis Ivanovic to force the game to extra time.
Still there was time for Costa to do one more stupid act. He pushed Zoumana Camara to the ground after not being awarded a penalty but referee Kuipers had already turned his back to head back to the centre line for the goal kick, and Costa was saved his marching orders.
Chelsea entered extra time, still with a man advantage and home advantage but still level. Soon fortune was to turn their way and this time Paris inflicted their own wounds.
After the restart came a moment of madness from Silva who jumped with his hand in the air when challenged by the taller Kurt Zouma. Although his contact with the ball was minimal, the referee’s call was correct and Eden Hazard converted the penalty, to give the Blues a 3-2 advantage on aggregate.
Courtois made one more heroic save to deny Silva the chance to redeem himself but only for seconds. He beat the keeper with a header and from a full 12 yards too.
That was all the action 120 minutes could pack in and Chelsea were left reeling and facing exit from a cup competition for the second time this year and the PSG fans singing “O Ville Lumière” into the West London sky.
