This Wednesday at 9pm (CET), Paris Saint-Germain (1st in Ligue 1) will face Chelsea (6th in the Premier League) at the Parc des Princes in the first leg of the round of 16 (second leg on March 17) of the 2025-2026 Champions League. In a press conference, the Blues’ coach Liam Rosenior spoke about this match and the Parisian opponent.
Rosenior: “The way they ran and pressed the ball, what they were doing magnificently at that moment.”
“Did you watch the last encounter between PSG and Chelsea, the Club World Cup final, postponed to July 13, 2025, which Chelsea won 3-0?”
“Yes, I was at home in Derby. It was a great match, between two fantastic teams. The (Chelsea) players delivered an incredible performance that day, but it doesn’t foreshadow what will happen tomorrow (Wednesday). The context is completely different.”
“How are you finding your return to France, given that you were coaching Strasbourg just two months ago?”
“I had an incredible experience in this country, with a great league, excellent coaches, and great players. Especially those from PSG.” Last season, I showed my players in Strasbourg video clips of PSG matches, which highlighted the intensity of the Parisians, the way they ran and pressed the ball, what they were doing so magnificently at those times.
Rosenior: “PSG remains a world-class team”
PSG’s level of play has been criticized in recent days. What do you think about that?
When you’re successful, people want to bring you down. That’s normal, it’s the natural cycle of life. Similarly, when top clubs encounter difficulties, they get criticized. What I can say is that PSG remains a world-class team, just like its manager.
Rosenior: “It will be a very difficult challenge from a tactical, technical, and physical point of view”
How are you approaching this round of 16 match at the Parc des Princes?
It will be a very difficult challenge from a tactical, technical, and physical point of view, even though we also have world-class players. When I arrived at Chelsea, I said I was a fairly self-assured person. Well, two months later, I’m even more confident, because I know my players better, and they know me better too.
Ultimately, Rosenior’s comments sounded like those of a clear-headed coach before a match that could decide the season. Yes, PSG arrives with doubts and a level of play that has been questioned in recent days, but Chelsea isn’t approaching this trip as a mission against a wounded giant that has become toothless.
On the contrary, the English manager emphasizes what Paris can produce when its collective intensity is reignited: a suffocating press, aggressive runs, and an ability to impose a major tactical, technical, and physical challenge. His statement thus conveys a simple message: Chelsea comes with confidence, but without arrogance.
And in a Parc des Princes that hosts the first leg this Wednesday at 9 p.m., this caution reflects genuine respect for an opponent still perceived as a world-class team. This wariness is not just press conference window dressing. Rosenior knows French football from the inside after his recent stint at Strasbourg, and his perspective therefore carries more weight than a pre-match diplomatic platitude.
When a coach coming from Ligue 1 continues to speak about PSG with such caution, it also suggests that PSG’s current dip in form hasn’t diminished their potential, nor their ability to reignite the flame on a major European stage.
