Chelsea 1-2 PSG (2-4 agg): Ibrahimovic strikes hammer blow as Blues crash out - 5 things we learned

he Swede turned home Angel Di Maria's cross to put the tie beyond Chelsea and send PSG into the Champions League quarter-finals

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Chelsea's Champions League dream is over for another year after a 2-1 win for Paris Saint-Germain at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues came into the game hopeful of securing another dramatic turnaround against the French champions, but came up short on a frustrating night.
Adrien Rabiot put the away side ahead with a close-range finish, before Diego Costa set up an intriguing second half with a fine strike before the break.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic , though, struck to silence the Bridge, putting PSG into the quarter-finals.
Here are five things we learned:

1. Ibrahimovic took charge on the grand stage

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Key moment: Ibrahimovic fires home from close range

The big Swede has been criticised in the past for failing to influence the biggest games.
His doubters see him as the ultimate flat-track bully – a striker who plunders goals against Ligue 1's lesser lights but lacks the temperament to stamp his authority when it matters most.
There is perhaps an element of truth to this: before tonight, he had managed a modest four goals in 11 Champions League knockout games for PSG and had never managed to score in both legs of a European tie. Not criminal, but a player of his calibre might have done more.
Here, though, Ibrahimovic was imperious. As is often his wont in such big games, he spent more time dropping into midfield to construct the play than he did pushing onto Chelsea's centre-backs, preferring to confound with his positioning rather than through brute force.
When the chance to pop up in the area arose, he timed it perfectly. The run in behind for Adrien Rabiot's first was brilliant, and his arrived on the scene in the nick of time to slam home the winner.

2. Costa is no fraud

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Delight: Costa celebrates his goal

The Chelsea striker does not have the air of a man who struggles to get motivated for the big occasion. In fact, such is the snarling swagger with which he plays football, you wonder just how much he's able to dial it down off the field.
It is not difficult to imagine Costa's day-to-day life consisting of a sequence of aggressions and conspiratorial glares: a foul in the supermarket aisle, a shirt tug at the family barbecue, a headbutt at the bar mitzvah.
One may reasonably doubt wisdom, then, of poking the beast further by labelling him a "fraud" on Twitter. Costa may or may not be an avid user of social media, but you can bet that news of the slur – playful as it may have been intended – made it into the dressing room before this game.

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In action: The striker tries his luck

Costa, restored to the Chelsea XI after missing the draw with Stoke, was certainly in the mood here. He discarded his protective face mask within ten minutes (real supervillains don't need them) and set about tormenting the PSG defence with typical bulldog vim, dragging Chelsea to another level after a fairly prosaic start.
He scrapped with David Luiz, got Adrien Rabiot booked and generally spent the match starting fires all over the pitch.
But his goal, a calm finish after he bewitched Thiago Silva, was a timely reminder that, beneath all the pantomime stuff, Costa is a real talent. It was no coincidence that Chelsea lost much of their edge after he was forced off after an hour.

3. Marco Verratti was a big loss for PSG

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Line up: PSG missed their dynamic midfielder

When PSG's first-line midfield three are all fit, their interplay is a sight to behold. Blaise Matuidi thunders from box to box like a runaway train, safe in the knowledge that Thiago Motta – basically Sergio Busquets before Sergio Busquets became A Thing – will sit in, mop up and keep his head.
The jewel in the crown, though, is Verratti. The Italian delights in navigating through tight spaces, at times appearing to play himself into trouble but then emerging triumphant having drawn three or four players out of position.
He failed to recover from a groin injury in time to feature and Laurent Blanc's side missed his influence from deep. Without his daring passing, they struggled to stretch the game at times.

4. Kenedy might just have a future at left-back

Clive Rose

Solid job: Kenedy takes on Di Maria

The most thankless task of the evening was handed to young Brazilian Kenedy by Hiddink. He was again chosen at left-back, tasked with dealing with a rejuvenated Angel Di Maria.
A striker by trade (he played just off former Selecao forward Fred for most of his short time in Fluminense's senior side), he looked slightly shaky early on, perhaps a little too eager to get onto the front foot.
So it was for PSG's opener, when he was drawn to the ball, allowing Zlatan Ibrahimovic to advance into the channel.
But Kenedy stuck at his task and. He was well positioned for the most part and forced Di Maria inside into crowded areas. He could have a future in this position.
Just what Baba Rahman – a £20million specialist left-back – thinks about it all is another matter.

5. Stamford Bridge may have to wait a while for more of this

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Blow: Oscar replaces Eden Hazard

With Chelsea miles off the race for the top four in the league and stadium redevelopment plans gathering pace, this may well have been the last Champions League game at the ground as it is now.
That is, unless Chelsea win the FA Cup.
After this disappointment, they will now be throwing all they have into that competition in the hope of guaranteeing a few more glamour nights like this in their calendar for 2016/17.