Mourinho sees difficult road ahead

Chelsea 0 Paris St Germain 0

As predicted, Blues boss Jose Mourinho made seven alterations to the starting XI from the weekend's Premiership match against Bolton. But it was the performances of his two second-half substitutes, Damien Duff and Didier Drogba - fit again after six-weeks out with a groin injury - which caught the eye. The Ivory Coast striker could have won it with 10 minutes to go, had he not hit his shot straight at PSG keeper Lionel Letizi from 12 yards.

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho maintained there will be no easy ride for Chelsea in the last 16, The seeding of the draw for the next stage means there is a strong possibility the Blues could come up against the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich for a place in the quarter-finals.

And Mourinho reflected: "The first objective is to go through, and the second is to be the (group) leader - but sometimes to be leader means nothing. For us, imagine if Liverpool are second in their group, we cannot play against them, we cannot play against the head of the group because we are head of our group.

"It is possible that Arsenal are also second - we cannot play them, or their head of group. Manchester United are second - because it it also possible, they have to go to Fenerbahce, and could get a draw there and they are second - we cannot play Man United, or the head of the group.

"So you know what our chances are? Bayern Munich, Barcelona, and maybe Real Madrid. I thought about it. We would not be in a draw with seven teams, but with about three or four teams, maybe Werder Bremen also involved and it is not easy because they are champions in Germany."

"I am not so unhappy as I am in defeat, but not so happy as I am in victory," said the Chelsea manager. "I think the performance was not good, was not bad and it was a game without salt and pepper.

"The result is not what we want, but one point is better than a loss.

"I think we did enough to win. Paris knew that one point was a great result for them, so they came here for the draw and fought a lot for that with some good defensive organisation.

"We did not give the match to PSG - if you go to their dressing room, I believe they are tired because they had to fight. We tried to win, and had some chances, the last which was a great one and could have killed the game.

Mourinho added: "Didier is not 100%, because he needs time for his confidence and his shot, his explosive run, but it was a good day for him to come back.

"It is a question of one or two more weeks, and then he will be 100%, so that was good."

For PSG coach Vahid Halilhodzic, it was very much a case of mission accomplished as they kept alive hopes of making the last 16.

The French side endured a poor start to their group campaign, losing 3-0 at home to Chelsea and also being beaten by CSKA Moscow.

However, they have not lost since and after the Russians lost to Porto earlier yesterday evening, are in the driving seat to join Chelsea should they pick up maximum points in the final group game against CSKA in Paris.

"Our fate is in our own hands, with victory we will be through to the second stage," declared the PSG manager. "It would be a real reward for all the hard work we have all put in since our bad start which we had at the beginning of the tournament.

"Now this result puts us in good stead to hold on to gaining second place in the group."

CHELSEA: Cudicini, Johnson, Ricardo Carvalho, Gallas, Bridge, Smertin, Parker, Lampard (Gudjohnsen 63), Cole, Kezman (Drogba 62), Robben (Duff 45).

PSG: Letizi, Pichot, Pierre-Fanfan, Yepes, Armand, Mendy, Cana, M'Bami, Cisse (Boskovic 83), Reinaldo (Coridon 76), Pauleta (Pancrate 89).

Referee: Rene Temmink (Holland).