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Blanc thankful for Paris improvement

Laurent Blanc said that Paris Saint-Germain "managed to be better in the second half" while beaten Chelsea FC manager José Mourinho lamented his side's poor defending.

Blanc thankful for Paris improvement
Blanc thankful for Paris improvement ©UEFA.com

Laurent Blanc, Paris coach
You can always do better but I think the boys gave everything tonight. We've been a bit cautious in the building of our game. We were probably a bit afraid of Chelsea's counterattacks. They are a very powerful team. We made them run, though, and scored that last-gasp goal.

I think we managed to be better in the second half. We won more balls and Javier [Pastore]'s goal was fantastic. We were rewarded for our second half. We kept fighting and our midfield answered that call with their trademark skills. We looked for this third goal and got it. I'm happy for Javier, who's had his ups and downs but who got his reward for a classy piece of play. He only deserves praise.

Zlatan [Ibrahimović] felt a slight muscular pain; I'm not sure whether it's his calf or his hamstring. We'll have to look after that but it will require a certain amount of rest.

We know that whatever the first-leg scoreline, a tough game is ahead of us on Tuesday at Stamford Bridge. We scored three goals but we saw that we can concede too. It's tight with suspense. We'll have to be ready for that test.

José Mourinho, Chelsea manager
We played against a great team who have great attacking players. You expect them to score goals and they did. We helped them with some poor defending; we lose the first goal in an easy position and we assist the striker. Nobody in second goal was there for a crucial position.

The second goal one of my players scores an own goal, it's unlucky, but the way the team positioned themselves defensively was not the right one.

The third goal is ridiculous. Gary Cahill said it was sloppy, I say ridiculous. I can't blame individuals for the mistakes. I won't do it out here. I will speak to them in the dressing room.

It will be difficult in the second leg but not impossible. In football nothing is impossible. They can score a goal out of nothing and we are not full of goals at the moment, but you never know. We have to give everything. 

I changed the team at 1-1 because I thought Fernando Torres could give us more depth than André Schürrle. The team was comfortable with André and I thought Fernando could give us a bit more.

We have to try [to turn the tie round]. We have to go with everything and let's try.

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