Former Toon Boss Calls Chelsea 'Pathetic!'

Last updated : 12 March 2015 By Footy Mad - Editor

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The Blues crashed out of the competition on away goals after drawing the last-16 second leg match 2-2, meaning PSG progressed with the aggregate finishing 3-3.

Souness: "This PSG team is just full of technique, a really good footballing team and they had to put up with stuff which I find really, really unappealing.

"The reaction of the Chelsea players on the challenge on Oscar epitomised what I'm saying. To a man they surrounded the referee, (Diego) Costa ran 50 yards to get involved.

"That is something we can do without, that is not the British way of doing things, it's creeping into our game, which is, I find, totally unacceptable.

"When you played, the last thing you wanted to show was that you were injured. Today is the exact opposite of that, someone brushes you, you want to go down and try and get them in trouble. That's how pathetic it is.

"We saw a bit of that in the first half and thank goodness the PSG team stood up to that and they leave here with credit. They're a proper team.

"When I played, when we played, if you got a kick, injured, you didn't want to show the guy who did it to you that it hurt, you stay on your feet. Today it's the exact opposite and that's crept into our game.

"There have been wonderful South American and Latin players come to this country, but they bring with them that tactic.

"I've worked in Latin countries, I've played in one. It was completely foreign to me when I went there in the eighties and witnessed it close up. They thought it was good play if you got someone else in trouble, someone booked.
 
"Costa starts off a game with one intention - as much as I like him - 'I am going to intimidate the centre-halves, nudge them, elbow them, set about them physically and just get to the border without getting myself in trouble', hoping they react to that and come after him.

"He's cute and clever, gets himself up in the air for any challenge coming, they get a yellow card and those centre-halves can't come near him after that. That's how it's crept into our game."

Fellow Sky pundit Jamie Carragher: "The worst bit of dirty tricks was from Chelsea, surrounding the referee, the reaction was disgraceful.

"It's a recurring theme right throughout his career.

"Jose Mourinho could end up being the most successful manager ever with the trophies he goes on to win in his career but I don't think him and his teams will be ever be loved because of actions like that.

"Does Mourinho care? I don't think he probably cares. I think it's sad."

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has accused Chelsea's players of being "babies" after the Paris St Germain striker was sent off at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.

PSG advanced to the Champions League quarter-finals at Chelsea's expense despite Ibrahimovic being shown a straight red card after 31 minutes, dismissed for a challenge on Oscar which was more clumsy than malicious as he attempted to pull out of the 50-50 tackle.

Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers was quick to make his decision, although he was surrounded by nine Chelsea players as he pulled the card out of his top pocket.

Ibrahimovic said: "I don't know if I have to get angry or start to laugh. For me when I saw the red card I was like 'the guy doesn't know what he's doing'

"That is not the worst. The worst is when I got the red card all the Chelsea players come around. It felt like I had a lot of babies around me.

"I pulled out (of the tackle), because I saw him come in the tackle.

"I don't know if he was acting afterwards. Doesn't matter. We won the game, we went through and let's see what happens.

"It was an amazing performance because we were playing with one less (player).

"They played with big hearts. It's not easy to play with 10 guys, especially against a team like Chelsea. We showed quality and big heart."