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- Mourinho: Timing wrong for PSG move | Cesc in fitness race
- Ibrahimovic: The 20 most ridiculous things he has ever said
- Alan Smith: Ibrahimovic against Costa – who will win?
- Friends reunited: Ferguson visits Mourinho in Paris
Do you love Zlatan? If not, why not? Are Chelsea really England's most hated club? Who will win the Champions League? Email alan.tyers@telegraph.co.uk with your views
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22 mins: Zlatan with a ball in, Paris header, no danger.
20 mins: Paris playing it around pleasantly enough, but only on the halfway line. Now A long ball for Zlatan, from Thiago, and Zlatan tries an effort from a tight angle. Never going in.
18 mins: Andrew Holgate asks:
Surely everyone is watching Eastenders Live rather than this?
Dunno what you're on about mate. I'm watching EastEnders. Not really. Den did it, I expect. Is he still in?
As Noel Gallagher put it so eloquently on Monday Night Club recently: "we don't watch soap operas - they're for squares."
Meanwhile, Silva is making a song and dnace about Costa elbowing him in the swede.
17 mins: Ah but everybody likes this little solider. Oh, and the ref's got his magic spray back. You can't take your eyes off this one. Meanwhile, Zlatan has had a dibble from ooh, about a quarter of a mile.
17 mins: Blimey look at this pair.
13 mins: Chelsea break, Hazard and Cesc linking up well, Thiago Silva does well to stop Costa. Oh, that ref has dropped his vanishing spray. But he hasn't noticed! One for the Question of Sport boys. Jackson Simmons writes:
Zlatan is a amazing player but his attitude is very bad especially to reporters.
Aw, I think the reporters can handle it. And not liking reporters is hardly unique to the Z Man.
11 mins: This is more like it! Paris with a storming run, a cross from Cavani and a really good effort from Cheryl Matuidi. Decent save from Courtois. Now the ball down the left, and this time it's Matuidi who crosses and ZLATAN rises to head... ah that fairly easy for Courtois. Still, a pair of warning shots across the Chelsea bows.
9 mins: Well, it's not a classic so far, I think it is fair to sy. Azpi makes a run and has his shirt tugged by Lavezzi.
6 mins: Chelsea enjoying a long spell on the ball, Willian eventually makes a dart of a run down the right but he is well marshalled by Cavani and that's a goal kick.
4 mins: Useful move from Lavezzi and van der Wiel, the latter bombing down the flank and delivering... a poor ball.
2 mins: Matic comes deep to pick it up, Costa drops back to receive the ball. Composed from Chelsea, and they've got the crowd whistling in frustration.
1 mins: Unusually good atmos for a French football crowd.
19.45 And it is the hosts who will kick off.
PSG: Sirigu, van der Wiel, Marquinhos, Thiago Silva, Maxwell, Verratti, Luiz, Matuidi, Lavezzi, Ibrahimovic, Cavani. Subs: Douchez, Camara, Bahebeck, Digne, Rabiot, Pastore, Kimpembe.
Chelsea: Courtois, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta, Ramires, Matic, Willian, Fabregas, Hazard, Costa. Subs: Cech, Luis, Zouma, Oscar, Drogba, Remy, Cuadrado.
Referee: Cuneyt Cakir (Turkey)
19.43 Right then! Players are out on the pitch. PSG in dark blue, Chelsea in yellow.
19.40 "This team is head and shoulders above the Chelsea team that won the Champions League," says Lee Dixon. "Too early to say they are a great team," cautions Scholes.
19.39 Luiz the one to get at there. And maybe Thiago Silva? Oh, Brazil.
19.37 And here are the Paris men who will try. Above. Meanwhile, an email from William Kalua (Malawi)
Chelsea are the most hated English club because of the 'happy one' his arrogance, attack on referees and mind games are doing the club no good at all. Thanks for the good work Alan, am always reading your blog although am watching the games you blog in.
Thanks William! That is very kind of you.
19.36 Solid line up, that. Cahill the one to get at.
19.35 Pougatch gets the "park the bus" joke away. And... commerical.
19.34 "Does he do it in the really big games?" Scholes on Zlatan. Ah, that old chestpiece.
19.33 Very tough crowd for Pougers. Keane and Scholes are eyeing him like something they found on their shoe. I don't think Pougatch is considered a Proper Football Man. IE, in this instance, is he posh?
19.30 Are you ready, Mark Pougatch? This is your moment. He's taken his glasses off. He has a very sensible overcoat on.
19.24 An email from Ahmed Abdulkadir, what a cool name. Hit it, Ahmed.
Zlatan is an amazingly talented footballer. In my opinion, he has to be in the top three "out and out strikers". His strength and technique is second to none but he is getting older so he isn't an electric in speed as you used to be. [I think Ahmed means "as Zlatan used to be". My electric pace is as it ever was - AT]
However, he makes up with attitude and grit. If he feels the game and really goes for it, i really can't see cahill containing him when there is lavezzi and cavani roaming all the time. Especially after Kane showings.
Loyalties to chelsea aside, I think with success comes with hatred and Chelsea have been really successful recently so i could understand why opposition fans feel Mourinho is annoying because that's what i felt about Sir Alex for quite some time. I predict chelsea to win 2-1, but ultimately not win the trophy. It just has to be Bayern for me, they have so much quality all over the squad and also that consistency to boot.
19.17 And here are said boots...
19.07 An email arrives from John Mc Enerney:
Evening Alan, you just gotta love Zlatan he's as box office as Mou. When he starts mouthing off just drop in the fact that Jasper Blomquist has a Champions League winners medal & he doesn't, doubt it would shut him up it'd probably get him to come out with some more Zlatan gems. CFC have taken over as the most hated club in the UK from MUFC. Bayern should win the CL on present form but don't write off FCB just yet weak at the back but unreal up front not bad in midfield if they can tighten up the back four they'll be close. Enjoy it man!
Zlatan gems, you say? Ibrahimovic: The 20 most ridiculous things he has ever said
19.05 Bus thing appears to be legit! That IS funny. Open goal for Twitter wags, eh what?
19.04 Striker Diego Costa, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, defender Gary Cahill and playmaker Cesc Fabregas return for Chelsea in the Champions League last-16 first leg at Paris St Germain.
Costa is back after a disputed three-match ban, Courtois in place of Petr Cech, Cahill ahead of Kurt Zouma and Fabregas in place of Juan Cuadrado for the Blues, who lost 3-1 at Parc des Princes last term, but advanced from the quarter-finals at PSG's expense on away goals.
Chelsea's bus became stuck entering the stadium, but Jose Mourinho was hoping to avoid too many difficulties against an injury-depleted PSG, who started with former Chelsea defender David Luiz in midfield.
19.00 Emmerdale time! Lady in a fur coat talks to lady with a scarf. More as I have it. After that on ITV, the football - and the dayboo of Mark 'Pougers' Pougatch stepping into the chair still bearing the imprints of Adrian Chiles's ample behind. How will he get on?
18.55 Sensational work. If true.
18.45 Here are the teams.
PSG: Sirigu; van der Wiel, Silva, Marquinhos, Maxwell; Luiz, Verratti, Matuidi; Lavezzi, Ibrahimovic, Cavani.
Chelsea: Courtois; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Ramires, Matic; Willian, Cesc, Hazard; Diego Costa
18.25 Mourinho took time out of his pre-match preparations in Paris to help out an elderly Scottish tourist. Here's Matt Law with the low-down:
Sir Alex Ferguson visited Jose Mourinho at the Chelsea team hotel in Paris on Tuesday morning.
Chelsea manager Mourinho and his players are staying at the L’Hotel Du Collectionneur in Paris ahead of their Champions League clash against Paris Saint-Germain.
Former Manchester United manager Ferguson was spotted and photographed going into the hotel, where he is understood to have met with Mourinho.
More on that here. And here they are a few years back.
18.15 Intriguing sub-plots all over the pitch tonight, of course. David Luiz against his former team-mates among them. He is an absolute mystery to me, that lad. I cannot remember a more over-rated centre half at the exalted levels he occupies. What am I missing?
18.05 Team news as soon as I have it. In the meantime, this man here reckons that Chelsea have replaced Man United as the neutral's most hated football team. What do you reckon?
When Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003, he was picking up a fast-improving brand that had garnered several trophies under the leadership of Ruud Gullit, Gianluca Vialli and Claudio Ranieri. But the new Russian-owned Chelsea, with Mourinho as its key player, was soon set on a course that would see it become the most hated team in England. It's a title that surely will be cemented if the team is triumphant this season.
I only realised this when Chelsea robbed Everton of a draw last week. Willian's jammy goal in the 89th minute reminded me of all those Manchester United matches when they couldn't lose a game even if they wanted to, repeatedly snatching victories at the end of tight matches. I found myself cursing Chelsea in unprintable terms, and deeply enjoying the sensation of loathing them for their good fortune, their wealth, their talent and their undisputed status as winners. Assorted surveys confirm that I am not alone in despising Chelsea – but I knew anyway, in my guts.
How is it, I wondered, that teams become so detestable? And what does it take to become the number one club in the Premier League of Universal Loathing?
Read more of How Chelsea became the most hated team in England.
18.00 Hello everyone, Alan Tyers here. Welcome to our first live blog of the Champions League knockout stages.
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Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea manager, confirmed on Monday evening that Diego Costa will start against Paris Saint-Germain in their Champions League last-16 first leg at Parc des Princes tonight though does not expect his striker to be at his best.
Costa, who has scored 17 goals in 19 Premier League games this term, missed the matches with Manchester City, Aston Villa and Everton after he was handed a three-match ban for stamping on Liverpool's Emre Can.
Mourinho said: "Yes, I start him. But I don't think it's good for a player to be three weeks, or three matches, without starting a game. So I don't think he's in the best of his condition."
Chelsea overturned a 3-1 first-leg deficit to win the quarter-final tie between the sides last term on away goals, courtesy of Eden Hazard's penalty in Paris and Demba Ba's last-gasp decisive strike at Stamford Bridge.
David Luiz, who left Chelsea for PSG last summer in a £50 million deal, believes Mourinho's side are stronger this term.
Mourinho said: "Chelsea is a different team. We have some different players, we change a little bit the profile of our game, the identity of our game.
"I don't want to say we are better or not better. I'm saying that we change the profile of our game, so I believe that Parc des Princes will see a different Chelsea than last season.
"We beat them, but we lost. And we lost in Paris and again knockout competition was decided in the last minute.
"I'm not saying we won because we were better than Paris. We won because we scored a goal away and we didn't concede at home."
Chelsea had a rare free weekend after their shock FA Cup elimination to Bradford and will play for the first time in six days, since the late Premier League defeat of Everton last Wednesday.
PSG played Caen last Saturday in a defeat costly due to the number of casualties incurred, but Mourinho gave short shrift to the suggestion Chelsea had an advantage.
"We were not happy to be knocked out," he said.
"And the last person you should speak about accumulation of matches is with a manager of an English club.
"England is a special place and when the French players were on holidays at Christmas, we were playing five matches in 10 days, so don't speak with us about accumulation and fatigue."
The inclusion of Costa was always likely, but Mourinho has selection decisions to make in goal and in defence.
He would not declare whether Petr Cech, who started the most recent game and kept a cleansheet, would start ahead of Thibaut Courtois, who began the season as number one goalkeeper.
Kurt Zouma has displaced Gary Cahill to play in central defence alongside captain John Terry of late, but Mourinho could revert to the Englishmen's partnership.
Join Alan Tyers from 6pm for all the build-up and team news
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