BY JAKE ODEMO
Chelsea Manager, Jose Morinho invited racist victim, Souleyman S to the football match between Chelsea and PSG on Tuesday evening, in an attempt to appease the French black man who was subjected an unprovoked torrent of racial abuse by racist idiots in Paris last week. Video footage showing Souleyman being denied entry into a train by by football fans on their way to the champions league tie at parc de Pierre chanting ‘we are racist and that’s how we like it, shocked the world. In a statement, an embarrassed Mourinho stated ” we feel ashamed, but maybe we shouldn’t. I refuse to be connected to these people. I support the idea of inviting the gentleman to the match, even though I don’t know whether he likes football. The club would like to apologise unreservedly to Souleyman for the behaviour of a small number of individuals and their unforgivable actions.
However, Souleyman turned down the offer, saying ” I appreciate Mr. Mourinho’s offer, but I cannot see myself being in a stadium at the moment. I felt truly wounded from the bottom of my heart (such)that I couldn’t believe it, he told the BBC in an interview. Of course, it is their fans, it is Chelsea’s responsibility.
MATCH
The Champions league match itself – the last 16 was far from an entertaining, though one in which both teams must have been reasonably satisfied with the draw. P S G will understandably have felt they could have won the match, but for the heroics of Chelsea keeper Thibaut Courtois. He made several saves to keep out the Parisians to keep the score level and earn Chelsea the draw to take back to Stamford Bridge. It was a tough game for the Londoners and they had to withstand a wave of P S G attacks in the second half. Courtis returning in place of Petr Cech was forced into making quick saves in succession from French midfielder Blaise Matuidi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic early in the first half.
Again before half-time Courtis was called into action, this time pushing Edison Cavani ‘s header away at the near post. This was one of many scares for the blues, but shortly after they took the lead. A headed clearance from Thiago Silva went straight to John Terry. The Chelsea skipper crossed the ball and it was flicked on by centre-back Gary Cahill, which then found the head of Branislav Ivanovic. The Chelsea right-back steered his header beyond keeper Salvatore Sirigu. It was Ivanovic’s fifth goal of the season.
P S G began the second half in a strong fashion and soon profited from poor Chelsea marking in the box. Matuidi picked up a pass from Maxwell down the left flank and his cross was superbly delivered for Cavani. He found space between Cahill and Terry to nod the ball into the net for the equaliser. It was well deserved for their attacking efforts and they pressed for a second goal. Ibrahimovic came close again when he wriggled his way into the box but Courtois saved his shot and Ezequiel Lavezzi’s follw-up hit Cesar Azpilicueta when it was goal-bound in the six-yard box. Again, Chelsea were poor on crosses and Courtis had to tip a header over from Chelsea old boy David Luiz. Cavani then poked his shot wide after exchanging passes with Matuidi.
In the final minutes of the game Courtois again came to Chelsea’s rescue as he pushed over an Ibrahimovic powerful downward header. The match finished all-square and it was a massive improvement on last season’s result. Then Chelsea came away from Paris losing 3-1 to P S G in the 1st leg of the quarter-final tie. This time it’s a much better result to take back to London. The second leg is 3 weeks away, so a lot can happen between now and then. But one thing is for sure this game is far from over and Chelsea will have to play much better than they did in Paris if they are to keep their champions league dream alive.
This match- marred by the distasteful racism that preceded it, was viewed by an average audience of 501,000 people, making it FS1’s most watched round of 16 match ever, and the fourth most champions league match on fox sport over all.
