Well, well, well, well, well, welllll.
Well.
That was unpleasant. A little too much AVB and not nearly enough Mourinho. Ok, actually way too much AVB. Attackers out of sync with each other (especially after half time). Midfielders running about aimlessly. Defenders making extra silly mistakes. Petr Cech looking more like Ross Turnbull. No wonder Mourinho blew his lid both publicly and, I'm assuming, privately as well.
Incidentally, I do appreciate the irony of the four players singled out for praise over the weekend putting in some of their worst shifts of the season at the worst possible time. Except for maybe Branislav Ivanovic who was the only player on the team willing and capable of winning a header. On the opposite side, Cesar Azpilicueta was trying to cope with marking three players at once. Unsurprisingly, he didn't cope very well. John Terry's greatest contribution was assisting on PSG's first goal; his second greatest was letting the ball bounce in the six-yard box on the second goal. Gary Cahill, future captain in waiting, crumbled to the Selhurst Park turf on Saturday; now he crumbled before the final whistle. Buck up, son. It's all a bit unbecoming.
So, it's all over, right?
Well...
Well, well, well, well, well, welllll...
I think the comeback against Napoli is so fresh in our minds that we seem incapable of imaging the case where we'd pull it off again. Yet, also back in 2012, just a few weeks later, we pulled off an even greater comeback against Barcelona, in Barcelona. A true miracle. Grabbing a 2-0 (or better) win at Stamford Bridge, where we've conceded just one goal in three months, would only be the third greatest comeback in the last two years for us. Doesn't sound all that incredibly daunting now, does it?
"We are not out. We will try to turn it around. We have nothing to lose. We have to play thinking that it's possible. To be fair I don't think Paris think it's done. They feel they are in a good position but they know it's not over."
"We are losing 3-1 so what can be our approach? Defend the 3-1?! It's an easy approach. A difficult approach is when we drew 1-1 with Galatasaray and when we played at home. We could attack and try to control the game or be defensive."
"When you are losing 3-1 there is no approach, you have to try to win 2-0, 3-1, 4-1. There is no other approach."
-Jose Mourinho; source: Chelsea FC
The Champions League - by virtue of being a knockout competition - has served up surprises and massive comebacks with regularity over the years. We've watched Chelsea both suffer and benefit in headline-grabbing results. Who can forget the Barcelona comeback at the Nou Camp in 2000, or our failed comeback attempt in 2004 against Monaco, which for a while was writing a prescient Napoli second leg script? That same year, a round earlier, Monaco acted out much the same story against Real Madrid. We've seen some of our biggest rivals etch their names into European lore by winning the most unlikely of unlikeliest Champions League finals (Manchester United in 1999, Liverpool in 2005). Our own magical night in Munich almost pales in purely objective comparison, though if we've learned anything from Roberto Di Matteo, it's that pure objectivity is overrated. Especially in the Champions League.
We just need a little bit of faith.