This Tuesday at 9pm (CET) Paris Saint-Germain will face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the second leg of the 2025-2026 Champions League round of 16 (PSG won the first leg 5-2). In a press conference, the Blues’ coach Liam Rosenior spoke about this match and their Parisian opponent.
Rosenior: “He had no bad intentions, and he’s already apologized.”
Neto?
“He had no bad intentions, and he’s already apologized. It’s a minor detail compared to everything we have to think about before this second leg, and what we need to show.
It’s not a distraction for us, but for the media. It just shows that we’re a team. We want to do something special against PSG, all together.”
Rosenior: “Reece James has a hamstring problem.”
“Paris has had more rest, that’s a fact. But I can’t do anything about this schedule; I can only focus on my team and what it’s ready to give.”
Any injuries?
“Reece James has a hamstring problem. Malo Gusto was sick today, and Jörgensen was injured at the end of the match against Paris. He’ll be back tomorrow.”
Rosenior: “They’re not European champions for nothing”
“If you look at the first leg, beyond the scoreline, we were punished by some very good players, but also by our lapses in concentration and our mistakes. They’re not European champions for nothing, but we performed well, and we were able to look them straight in the eye.”
Liam Rosenior’s message is crystal clear: Chelsea has no intention of passively accepting this second leg. By quickly putting the Neto issue aside, acknowledging the physical setbacks affecting Reece James, Malo Gusto, and Filip Jörgensen, and then addressing the lapses in concentration from the first leg, the Blues’ manager is primarily focused on keeping his team focused on what matters most.
His comments don’t deny PSG’s quality or the difficulty of the task, but he maintains a clear conviction: Chelsea has what it takes to make the evening more tense than the scoreline at the Parc des Princes suggests. For Paris, the warning is clear: the lead is valuable, but it offers no protection if the match quickly becomes a thriller at Stamford Bridge.
The value of Rosenior’s speech lies precisely there: he isn’t promising a miracle, he’s trying to maintain a competitive edge. This is exactly what must keep PSG alert, because an opponent who still believes can transform a theoretically manageable comeback into a much more nerve-wracking evening.
