Chelsea are brimming with confidence and, fortified by a seven-day break, go into the 11 March Champions League last-16 return match as favourites to knock Paris St Germain out for the second season in a row.
Last months first leg in Paris ended in a 1-1 draw but although Chelsea have lifted silverware in the interim, beating Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup final, manager Jose Mourinho is keen to keep his players focused on the game in front of them.
I think that it doesnt affect. The competition that we won, the competition that is finished, the competition that we will go next season to try to win but it is a competition thats finished, said the Portuguese boss. We have the Premier League and the Champions League to concentrate on and tomorrow were going to try to be in the quarter-final.
The Londoners followed their 2-0 League Cup final victory over Tottenham Hotspur on 1 March by winning 1-0 at West Ham United in the Premier League three days later.
Mourinho questioned PSGs tactics in the first leg, believing some of the treatment handed out to his players was overly aggressive:
I was surprised in that game, I was surprised because a team with fantastic players was the team with the record of fouls, was the team that was making foul after foul, was the team that stopped Hazard with fouls all the time, was the team that was attacking the man in possession of the ball with two or three players, some very aggressive actions. I thought that an English team would never be surprised by [aggressiveness], because [aggressiveness] we have in our country.
Mourinho was also dismissive of suggestions that PSG had controlled the first-leg:
What is dominate? If dominate is the number of chances then yes, Paris had more chances than us. If dominate is stopping the opponent playing with foul after foul, yes they did dominate. If dominate is to have the ball and move the ball without progression yes they also dominate. So I think they dominate in everything except the result, he said.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was missing through injury when PSG were beaten on away goals by Chelsea in last seasons quarter-finals but although the French clubs talismanic striker is fit this time round Mourinho has no special plan for the Swede.
I dont have a plan because its very difficult to play against a player like him because hes such a good player. But normally we dont focus on one player we focus on the team and this is what we are going to do, he said.
PSG will be without injured forward Lucas but fellow Brazilian David Luiz returns to Chelsea for the first time since moving to Paris in the close season.
