PSG Most Aggressive Opponents, Says Mourinho
Paris St Germain are the most aggressive side Chelsea have faced this season, Jose Mourinho has claimed.
After an exciting 1-1 draw in Paris in mid-February, PSG boss Laurent Blanc used his pre-match press conference for the return leg to highlight the antics of Blues striker Diego Costa, whom he claims "provokes opposition players".
Mourinho, however, was quick to fire back in the war of words, and stressed the French champions' physical approach to the first encounter and in particular the way they dealt with Chelsea's star winger Eden Hazard.
The Portuguese manager said: "I was surprised. In that game, I was surprised. The team with fantastic players was the team with fouls, making foul after foul, stopping Hazard with fouls all the time.
"They were attacking the man in possession of the ball with two or three players and having some very aggressive actions. A team where even a player like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a typical attacking player, was coming back and tackling Hazard from behind to stop counter-attacks.
"I have to be fair that I thought that an English team would never be surprised by aggression. Of course, aggression we have in our country.
"During our time this season we played a few times with teams from the Championship and League One in the cups. We played against Shrewsbury from League Two also in the cup. But the most aggressive team was Paris St Germain.
"With players of such quality I was expecting more football and less aggression.
"In terms of chances, PSG had more than us. If to dominate is to stop the opponent playing by making foul after foul, yes they dominated. If to dominate is to have the ball and move the ball without progression, then yes, they also dominated. I think they dominated in everything except the result."
Mourinho has won Europe's elite club competition twice in the past - with Porto and Internazionale - while most of his Chelsea squad clinched Champions League glory in 2012 under Roberto di Matteo.
Mourinho added: "Experience helps you to sleep good tonight. Just for that, you feel comfortable to play - it's something that you do a lot of times. So it's one more game in spite of it being a knockout game and a second leg.
"During the game, the players they play - and we are speaking about teams with very good players - and some of them are very comfortable to play at this level so I think it's more about that."
