Chelsea 'million miles away' from European elite after eye-opening Paris Saint-Germain defeat in UEFA Champions League - Joe Cole
Published 17/03/2026 at 23:44 GMT
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Chelsea were well beaten over two legs against reigning UEFA Champions League champions Paris Saint-Germain, suffering a heavy 8-2 loss on aggregate. Luis Enrique's visitors ran rampant against Liam Rosenior's squad and TNT Sports' Joe Cole noted that the result is proof of where Chelsea sit in Europe's hierarchy and are far away from the likes of PSG after an eye-opening defeat.
Highlights: Chelsea capitulate in bruising defeat to ruthless PSG
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Joe Cole condemned Chelsea's humbling defeat to Paris Saint-Germain as an "eye-opener" for the club and proof of how far away they are from Europe's elite.
A 3-0 loss to the reigning UEFA Champions League champions at Stamford Bridge saw Liam Rosenior's side exit with an 8-2 defeat over two legs.
For a club who want to challenge for both the Premier League and European glory, former Chelsea midfielder Cole knows that such a result is unacceptable.
Any shard of hope that they could overturn the three-goal deficit from last week's first leg was shattered when two PSG goals came in the opening 15 minutes.
Senny Mayulu added a third in the second half and Stamford Bridge began to empty.
"That is a real leveller of where this club is compared to Paris," Cole said. "PSG are the gold standard, they are the champions of Europe, but it showed that Chelsea are a million miles away over the course of two legs."
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For Cole, the defeat is not solely a coaching problem. Rosenior has only been in charge for little more than two months and had little say in the squad's composition, which has the lowest average age in the Premier League this season.
Cole continued: "This isn't a Liam Rosenior problem. Liam's doing what he's doing, he's just come through the door. This is a problem with strategy and the direction of where the club are going.
"This is a real eye-opener to where we are as a club at the moment. There's a lot of money being spent and we need to really think about what we're doing and how we're doing it. That's simply not good enough.
"There are 20-year-olds and 19-year-olds on the pitch today. There's time to grow, improve and get better. They'll have better nights in their career. But as a football club, you've got to go football club first, not business first. Simple as that, or else you'll get performances like that."
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FA Cup success, top-five place would mark 'good season' for Chelsea - Hargreaves
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In the same vein as Cole, Owen Hargreaves noted the lack of experience throughout the squad. They were without captain Reece James, himself only 26, owing to injury
"The club should want to win the biggest trophies. Premier League and Champions League. Right now they're miles off it. Brilliant young players, but they have too many young players, they need experience.
"All these great Chelsea teams have had world-class experienced players. John Terry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, [Claude] Makelele, [Michael] Essien. It's great to have these young kids but you need experienced players.
"The guys who own this football club, they have to understand that. You can't have three academy kids starting in the back four against the European champions. It's impossible. It's never going to work."
'A tough night' - Rosenior
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We don’t want many more tough nights like these - Rosenior
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Rosenior is hoping that his young Chelsea squad manage to avoid any more confidence-shaking nights like this one.
"A tough night," the manager said. "We knew it was a tough ask and to start the game in the manner that we did - we had the ball in the final third, you can't make mistakes at this level. We had the ball in their box and Barcola hit one from 25 yards into the top corner.
"They were clinical. The third goal, ball breaks and he hits in the top corner. I haven't looked at the stats yet but we had a lot of shots. They didn't make mistakes.
"This is a tough one to take. I want to thank the fans because they saw how hard the lads worked. We want to make sure we don't go through many more nights like this.
"When you go through a difficult run, you have to make sure your habits are right. We have a really difficult game at Everton and we have to be at our best to get a result there."
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