Cesc Fabregas believes Chelsea have lacked ‘killer instinct’ at times this season and has issued a rallying cry to his teammates to be ruthless when the chance arises against Paris Saint-Germain this evening
Chelsea will advance to the Champions League quarter-finals by seeing off PSG at Stamford Bridge tonight. The tie is delicately poised at 1-1 following last month’s first leg in Paris.
Fabregas expects PSG to enjoy spells of dominance, but wants Chelsea to capitalise when they’re on top, fearing his side have not always been ruthless enough this season.
“We have to believe we are the best, be mentally dominant and ready to cope with every situation,” Fabregas said in an interview with the Guardian. “There will be moments against Paris Saint-Germain when they will be on top. We don’t expect it to be a walk in the park, so we have to be mentally and physically ready, stick together as a team when they are being dangerous, and go for them when we can.
“This is the thing: if I have to say what we’re missing a bit this season it’s that moment when, if we can kill, we have to kill. There have been moments where we’ve not done that and allowed other teams to push and be dangerous.”
“We have to believe we are the best, be mentally dominant and ready to cope with every situation,” Fabregas said in an interview with the Guardian. “There will be moments against Paris Saint-Germain when they will be on top. We don’t expect it to be a walk in the park, so we have to be mentally and physically ready, stick together as a team when they are being dangerous, and go for them when we can.
“This is the thing: if I have to say what we’re missing a bit this season it’s that moment when, if we can kill, we have to kill. There have been moments where we’ve not done that and allowed other teams to push and be dangerous.”
Like Courtois, Fabregas has never won the Champions League before, despite having played in a final.
The 27-year-old was on the losing side in the 2005-06 final, with Arsenal against Barcelona, but didn’t come particularly close to winning club football’s most prestigious trophy during his three-year spell at the Camp Nou.
Should Chelsea advance to the quarter-finals tonight, the west London outfit will have a real opportunity to win this season’s competition.
And Fabregas believes a victory tonight could give his side a mental advantage over their future opponents heading into the last eight.
“From my experience, and especially with the national team, when we unlocked mentally that fear of quarter-finals or getting on to a really big stage, that’s when we felt we could become champions,” Fabregas, who has won both the World Cup and European Championships with Spain, concluded. “And once we were champions we were unstoppable.”
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