Jose Mourinho’s team down, out and a disgrace

It was a piece of theatre, an evening of theatrics. It was the night in which an extraordinary drama unfolded against a backdrop of dispiriting cynicism, in which the Champions League teetered from a showpiece to a disgrace and back again. It was a day when Jose Mourinho got it wrong.

Chelsea are out after a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday (yesterday morning, Singapore time) gave Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) a 3-3 aggregate win on the away goals rule and a place in the quarter-finals.

For all the strengths of Mourinho’s team, there is a soft under-belly, a fragility exposed at the highest level. His transfer dealings have been remarkable since these two sides met last season, but here was £50 million (S$103 million) David Luiz turning in a commanding performance and claiming a goal.

The goals Chelsea conceded were astonishing — headers from corners — against a PSG side that had played an hour of regulation time and an extra 30 minutes with 10-men after their biggest star Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s dismissal.

That sending-off infused everything — the nature of it, the distaste it left and the fear it would infect this contest and competition, which it did.

It felt that all played into Mourinho’s hands, given his pre-match comments that PSG were a physical, dirty side, he implied, more roughhouse than a League Two outfit, and one that got away with it. But they are not. Far from it. He called it badly.

The pressure Mourinho placed on referee Bjorn Kuipers was clear, and the official responded. It followed a fracas — the only appropriate word perhaps, given Chelsea fan and Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, who has been suspended by the BBC, was in the crowd — and though it was not then solely responsible for the play-acting, the disrepute and disruption that followed certainly heightened it.

It came after 32 minutes, with the dismissal by Kuipers of Ibrahimovic for his challenge on Oscar. No fewer than nine Chelsea players surrounded Kuipers by the time he showed the card, with Oscar the only outfield player not in shot, but only because he was writhing on the ground.

Mourinho had complained about the fouling, with justification, and early in this contest, Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard all hit the turf to raise further awareness that surely, PSG were at it again.

It worked. It came as Ibrahimovic slid in to tackle Oscar, but clearly also attempting to pull out at the last minute. In fact, both players caught each other. But the reaction of those in Chelsea blue sealed it as they rushed to surround Kuipers and shriek for Ibrahimovic to be punished.

John Terry was the most demonstrative, hurdling Oscar to get to the referee, along with Nemanja Matic, who waved frantically for the referee to act and for the Chelsea medics to come on. Costa came tearing across, while Oscar kept rolling.

“The reaction from the Chelsea players was disgraceful,” said former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher. “It comes from Jose Mourinho’s teams — they have this reaction, it’s not a one-off.

“With Jose Mourinho’s teams, they will always be respected, but never loved because of situations like this. They take winning to a level that no other team or manager does.”

Another pundit, Graeme Souness, agreed. He said: “It saddens me and makes me angry that gamesmanship is deciding big games ... It’s not about the best team winning anymore. If that’s what the game is coming to, we need to sort it out quickly.”

That is a strong accusation, a form of knowing akin to cheating, but Souness had an argument.

Was it under Mourinho’s instructions? Certainly, it appeared that the Chelsea players had been ordered to appeal.

But it was working against Chelsea. PSG were by far the better side. They had drawn motivation, while Chelsea seemed to have been distracted by the incidents, the disruption and the drama.

Tactically, they appeared lost and Costa appeared more intent on picking a fight than claiming the decisive goal. In the end, it was Thiago Silva who did just that. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jason Burt is the Daily Telegraph’s deputy football correspondent.

Result of Wednesday’s other Champions League last 16, second-leg match: Bayern Munich 7 Shakhtar Donetsk 0 (Bayern win 7-0 on aggregate).