Graeme Souness launched a scathing attack onto Diego Costa and his Chelsea team-mates after last night’s feisty 2-2 draw with Paris Saint-Germain.
The game turned into quite a heated affair after Zlatan Ibrahimovic was sent off in the first-half for a 50-50 challenge on Oscar. The tackle was followed by a disgraceful reaction from Chelsea players as nearly all 11 players surrounded the ref to get the Swede sent off. (As you can see in the above picture).
Ibrahimovic was dismissed but that didn’t prevent the French champions from going through to the Quarter Finals on away goals, and after the game, Souness was less than impressed with Chelsea.
“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,” Souness told Sky Sports 5.
“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.”
Souness then went on to single out Costa for his game-plan and how he tries to send players off.
“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.”
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt – @AlexsArticles
