
Chelsea
manager Jose Mourinho claims Paris St Germain are the most aggressive side
he has faced this season ahead of Wednesday's Champions League last 16
second leg at Stamford Bridge.
After an exciting 1-1 draw in Paris in mid-February, PSG boss Laurent Blanc
used his pre-match press conference for the return leg to highlight the
antics of Blues striker Diego Costa, who he claims 'provokes opposition
players'.
Mourinho, however, was quick to fire back in the war of words and stressed
the French champions' physical approach to the first encounter and in
particular the way they dealt with Chelsea's star winger Eden Hazard.
The Portuguese manager said: "I was surprised. In that game, I was
surprised. The team with fantastic players was the team with fouls, making
foul after foul, stopping Hazard with fouls all the time.
"They were attacking the man in possession of the ball with two or three
players and having some very aggressive actions. A team where even a player
like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a typical attacking player, was coming back and
tackling Hazard from behind to stop counter-attacks.
"I have to be fair that I thought that an English team would never be
surprised by aggression. Of course, aggression we have in our country.
"During our time this season we played a few times with teams from the
Championship and League One in the cups. We played against Shrewsbury from
League Two also in the cup. But the most aggressive team was Paris St
Germain.
"With players of such quality I was expecting more football and less
aggression.
"In terms of chances, PSG had more than us. If to dominate is to stop the
opponent playing by making foul after foul, yes they dominated. If to
dominate is to have the ball and move the ball without progression, then
yes, they also dominated. I think they dominated in everything except the
result."
Mourinho has won Europe's elite club competition twice in the past - with
Porto and Internazionale - while most of his Chelsea squad clinched
Champions League glory in 2012 under Roberto di Matteo.
Mourinho added: "Experience helps you to sleep good tonight. Just for that,
you feel comfortable to play - it's something that you do a lot of times. So
it's one more game in spite of it being a knockout game and a second leg.
"During the game, the players they play and we are speaking about teams with
very good players and some of them are very comfortable to play at this
level so I think it's more about that."