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The one consolation for Filip Jörgensen is there was no public humiliation from his manager. Even so, for all that Liam Rosenior was never going to do an Igor Tudor and hook his goalkeeper, the embarrassment was vast.
It was why a goalkeeper passing out from the back looks clever until the moment it goes wrong. By full-time it was hard to see a way back for Chelsea after an implosion allowed Paris Saint-Germain to storm into a 5-2 lead before heading to Stamford Bridge for the second leg of this last‑16 Champions League tie.
The frustration was immense. Chelsea impressed here, twice pegging back a thrilling, but defensively suspect PSG. For 74 minutes, it was a riposte to those who said their win over the European champions in the Club World Cup final was a one-off.
For the next 20 minutes, though, it was a tale of Jörgensen donating a goal to Vitinha to put PSG 3-2 up, Pedro Neto avoiding a red card for shoving a ballboy and Khvicha Kvaratskheli coming on to turn a tight game into a thrashing with two late goals.
It was hard to look past the dropping of Robert Sánchez and bringing Jörgensen in for his 10th start of the season. After the farce of Tottenham’s experiment with Antonin Kinsky against Atlético Madrid, another huge goalkeeping call backfired.
Why now? Sánchez has wobbled recently, but his direct kicking was a big feature of Chelsea thumping PSG. By making the change, the danger is Rosenior has undermined both of his goalkeepers. Sánchez’s confidence will be hit by confirmation he is no longer Chelsea’s No 1 while Jörgensen must recover from unravelling in the biggest game of his career.
Enzo Fernández, the vice-captain, threw the ball at Jörgensen and remonstrated with the Dane when another poor clearance led to PSG having a goal ruled out for offside. Disaster had already struck by then. It was 2-2 when Jörgensen blundered. His pass was intercepted by Bradley Barcola, Kvaratshkelia teed up Vitinha and the midfielder lifted an insouciant lob over Jörgensen.
There was irony in Rosenior turning to Jörgensen because of his passing ability. It is the cruellest position on the pitch. With PSG 1-0 up through an early strike from Barcola, Jörgensen made a couple of excellent saves to keep Chelsea in it. It could have been his night. In a way it was, just for the wrong reason.
It led to a collapse. Rosenior blamed himself for his young side’s inability to manage the situation. A 3-2 defeat would not have been the worst result. Chelsea even had a third goal ruled out for a tight offside.
It did not even feel insurmountable when Kvaratshkelia whipped in the fourth goal in the 86th minute. Instead of digging in, though, Rosenior made an attacking change, Alejandro Garnacho replacing Malo Gusto, and when Chelsea lost their shape deep into added time Achraf Hakimi had room to cross for Kvaratshkelia to score again. The scoreline was harsh, but a reflection of Chelsea’s naivety.
Both sides employed high-wire pressing systems and PSG were oddly vulnerable. There was space behind their full-backs, Marquinhos toiled in central defence and Fabián Ruiz was missed in midfield.
Yet Chelsea were fragile against a stacked PSG attack. With Ousmane Dembélé fit to start with Barcola and Desire Doué, they punished passive defending in the 10th minute. Dembélé crossed, João Neves nodded down and Barcola had time to take a touch before lashing PSG ahead.
PSG looked for more, Dembélé and Barcola testing Jörgensen’s reflexes. Chelsea played with poise, though, with Reece James and Moisés Caicedo offering stability in the middle. Neto had space on the left and the leveller was not a surprise, Fernández finding Gusto in an insulting amount of space and the right-back’s shot squirming past Matvei Safonov.
Conceding such a soft goal again raised the question of why PSG sold Gianluigi Donnarumma. Then again Safonov did make a crucial block to stop Cole Palmer from making it 2-1. It was a crucial intervention given the ball was in Chelsea’s net 14 seconds later.
Trevoh Chalobah and Caicedo sold themselves as PSG surged. Doué released Dembélé, who had to pass. Hakimi, the PSG right-back, made a lung-busting run to his left. But Dembélé backed himself. He chopped back to beat Wesley Fofana and drilled a low shot past Jörgensen. No wonder he won the Ballon d’Or.
Bodø/Glimt eye quarter-finals after stunning Sporting
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Another stellar display on their artificial home turf at the Aspmyra Stadion gave Norway’s Bodø/Glimt a 3-0 win over Sporting in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie. The Portuguese side joined the long list of big-name European clubs that have made the journey to the little fishing town inside the Arctic Circle and came away empty-handed as Bodø romped to an easy victory that puts them in the driving seat for a spot in the quarter-finals.
Luis Suárez blazed an early chance over the bar for the visitors but after that the hosts took over, and went ahead just after the half-hour mark after Georgios Vagiannidis bundled over Sondre Brunstad Fet in the box. The midfielder confidently stroked home the penalty he had won to give his side the lead.
The hosts were 2-0 up by the break, and though there was a slice of luck involved as Jens Petter Hauge’s through ball deflected into the path of Ole Didrik Blomberg (pictured), there was nothing fortunate about his superb finish from a tight angle to double Bodø's advantage.
Sporting showed a glimmer of attacking intent to start the second half but it was quickly snuffed out, and the hosts should have gone three up in the 55th minute after the ball pinged around in the box before eventually going out of play, with the Bodø defender Jostein Gundersen heading the resulting corner straight at the goalkeeper Rui Silva.
In total control of the game, Bodø grabbed the third goal their efforts deserved when the striker Kasper Høgh rounded off another fairytale effort, stealing between two defenders to deftly steer Hauge’s low cross into the net from close range.
The 3-0 win, Bodø’s fifth straight victory in the competition, leaves Sporting with a mountain to climb in the second leg, which will take place in Lisbon on Tuesday. Reuters
Photograph: Fredrik Varfjell/NTB Scanpix
There was a lull after half-time. PSG tried to exert control. There were a lot of loose touches, though, and Chelsea scored again when Neto capitalised on an error from Nuno Mendes, ran past Marquinhos and crossed for Fernández to equalise.
The game was drifting before Jörgensen crumbled. It never should have ended with Chelsea’s hopes of going through resting on a heroic comeback next Tuesday.
