Chelsea’s Frank Lampard (centre) warms up during a team training session at their training ground in Surrey yesterday. (EPA)

Reuters/London


Paris St Germain coach Laurent Blanc wants his side to take the game to Chelsea in their Champions League quarter-final second leg at Stamford Bridge today despite boasting a two-goal advantage.  
PSG, who have won 11 games in a row in all competitions, eclipsed Chelsea 3-1 at the Parc des Princes last week.
Having lost only one of their last 17 Champions League matches, Blanc is confident his team have what it takes to reach a European Cup semi-final for the first time since 1995, but is expecting a backlash from Jose Mourinho’s side.
“We believe in certain things and I have always believed that taking the game to the opposition is the best way of winning trophies,” the former France coach told reporters yesterday.
“We have not come here to suffer and let Chelsea dictate the game to us and dominate us. A role of a top team is to dominate the game even away from home.
“Our philosophy is an attacking one, we like to keep the ball and pose problems to our opposition. It would be wonderful to try to qualify by putting this philosophy into action.”
Mercurial striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has scored 10 Champions League goals this season, will miss the trip with a thigh injury he sustained in the first leg.
But South American duo Ezequiel Lavezzi and Edinson Cavani, part of the Napoli team that were knocked out of the competition by eventual winners Chelsea in 2012, will look to continue PSG’s run of scoring in 17 successive Champions League matches.  
“I think the first leg we saw Chelsea defend very compactly,” said Blanc, whose side have a 13-point lead at the top of France’s Ligue 1.
“That is very good for (first leg scorer) Ezequiel Lavezzi because he likes to have space down the flanks and he has got a lot of speed.  
“We caused problems for Chelsea in the first leg and it is now a case to see if they play a slightly higher line. If they do it will leave space in behind for players like Lavezzi to exploit.”
French midfielder Blaise Matuidi echoed Blanc’s thoughts and is hoping to put an end to PSG’s long wait for a last-four spot in European soccer’s biggest competition.  
“Chelsea are a great team. In the first leg we saw their quality and they don’t often lose here,” he said.  
“We are going to focus on our philosophy and we have got the quality to get the ball and play. I think it would be incredible (to reach the semi-finals). The French public are hoping for that.”
PSG, without Ibrahimovic, do not actually need to score any goals at Stamford Bridge to knock Chelsea out following their 3-1 first leg win in Paris.
It probably will not be as simple as that though, as Chelsea know a 2-0 win will see them through on the away goals rule.

Capable Midfielders
Even if his strikers again fail to impress Mourinho, Chelsea have an array of midfielders capable of swinging the tie in favour of the London club.
PSG do, though, start the match with a healthy advantage after Javier Pastore’s goal with the last kick of the game at the Parc des Princes last week gave them a buffer.
However, Chelsea at Stamford Bridge are a different proposition to the team that have lost their last three away matches in all competitions.
On Saturday they brushed Stoke City aside 3-0 in the Premier League, with all three goals coming from midfielders: Mohamed Salah, Willian and Frank Lampard, who has now scored 250 club goals for West Ham United, Swansea City and Chelsea.
He also has another 29 for England.
Saturday’s match was also their eighth successive home game with conceding a goal, and kept them two points behind Liverpool in the Premier League title race.
It was their 77th unbeaten home league match in Mourinho’s two spells at the club, and they have also proved in the past in Europe, most recently against Napoli two seasons ago, that no task is too large for them to overcome at Stamford Bridge.
“We know it won’t be easy at home but we can turn the tie around,” midfielder Eden Hazard, who scored from the penalty spot and hit the woodwork in the first leg, said.
“We have proved we can do this before, and we can do it again next week.”
Winger Andre Schurrle, preferred to 50 million pounds ($82.95 million) striker Fernando Torres in Paris, agreed they were down after the defeat, but not out.
“It’s the worst time of the season to get results like this (but) we are a different team at Stamford Bridge with our fans behind us. It will be difficult but it is not impossible.”