Pastore’s “Ridiculous” Silencer Infuriates Mourinho

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho tags the late third goal his side conceded at Paris St-Germain “ridiculous”, but believes his side can overturn a 3-1 deficit in their Champions League quarter-finals second leg tie at Stamford Bridge.

Substitute Javier Pastore’s solo effort on the stroke of full-time gifted the Parisians an edge over their opponents ahead of next week’s return leg.

“It’s a difficult job now but not impossible, nothing is impossible in football,” said Mourinho, after the loss at the Parc de Princes.

Pastore Celebrates With Teammates After Gliding Past Three Defenders to Score PSG's Third.
Pastore Celebrates With Teammates After Gliding Past Three Defenders to Score PSG’s Third.

“But they have players who out of nothing can score goals, we are not a team full of talent who can score lots of goals but you never know.”

Pastore received a throw-in on the dead-ball line, spun away from Cesar Azpilicueta, evades Frank Lampard with a smart body swerve and outlasted John Terry for pace before firing in low past Petr Cech at his near post.

Defender Garry Cahill thought it was “a sloppy goal” but the Portuguese coach does not concur with such notion.

“The third goal was ridiculous, you and Gary [Cahill] say sloppy, I say ridiculous,” Mourinho added.

Eden Hazard pulled Chelsea back from an early Ezekiel Lavezzi strike to leave scores at 1-1 at the interval. The ‘Blues’ were very much in the game despite failing to deal with set-pieces and getting ahead in the opening period of the match.

The manner nonetheless with which they conceded the first two goals must have infuriated Mourinho the more and prompted and extra dressing room talk after 90 minutes.

Terry dropped a weak header onto Lavezzi’s feet 4 minute after kick-off and the Argentine swiveled to crash a smart half-volley past a startled Czech, then David Luiz gifted the French champions a second while trying to desperately clear a superb Lavezzi free-kick but cannoned it inside his own net.

Mourinho, who however had to start Andre Schurrle ahead of Fernando Torres in the absence of Samuel Eto’O, rued the absence of a game changer such as Pastore, who came in for the injured Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Lavezzi, in his Chelsea squad.

He explained: “I changed the team at 1-1 because I thought Fernando Torres could give us more depth than Andre Schurrle, the team was comfortable with Andre and I thought Fernando could give us a bit more.

“We have to try and go with everything and let’s try.”

While Torres’ floundering form continues, Mourinho may have to bank on his two outstanding players on the night, Hazard and Willian, in a bid to (at least) get two unreplied goals into PSG’s net with Ibrahimovic a doubt for the return leg after suffering a hamstring knock on Wednesday.