“When we started this season with PSG, we knew our season would be judged practically all on the Champions League,” Blanc said. “Everyone thinks we are going to win the domestic league, and that we are expected to win every cup match, scoring four goals each game ... but the Champions League is the real judgement against elite clubs.
“We are prepared for these games. We've proved that. The players know each other better and, for the last three years, we have brought in or developed big players with Champions League experience. Players who have won it before, players who have learned from the three quarter-finals.
“We will be playing at a level we don't see in Ligue 1, but that's interesting for me as the coach, the players and the club. We can show if the club is progressing through these games, and if we can eventually win the Champions League. The club is getting bigger and bigger, and we can think now that, from a football point of view, PSG are able to win the Champions League. That's very good, and means we are moving in the right direction.”
Chelsea are 12th in the Premier League after Saturday’s 5-1 win over Newcastle United, and the corresponding 12th placed team in Ligue 1 is Bastia – who trail PSG by 36 points after 26 games. To put that in perspective, Chelsea only have 33 points themselves, after the same number of games. This is going to be a very different experience for PSG who are unbeaten in their league and have only dropped eight points all season.
The Aurier scandal has dominated the French media and Blanc did not handle it particularly well. Since moving into management he has shown himself to become a verbose type, with a flush of pride that repeatedly gets the better of him. He fussed about only taking one question on the issue but often referred back to Aurier independently and generally drew more attention to it himself.
Nevertheless, the question about his own dressing room authority was well-placed. Aurier might be a loose cannon, who has turned his own team-mates against him, but his insinuation about Blanc’s deference to Ibrahimovic was, it was clear to see, wounding - however offensive the terms in which he expressed it. Aurier said that Blanc was “une fiotte” – a faggot – who had oral s3x with Ibrahimovic. He was only slightly less unflattering about Gregory van der Wiel, and goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu.
The stupidity of Aurier cannot be underestimated, given it would appear he did not even know the video was being live-streamed by a friend of his, and he apologised immediately. Blanc called Aurier “pathetic” and “pitiful”, lamenting what he saw was a betrayal of a player he had personally recommended the club sign from Toulouse, and who may not feature again for the rest of the season.
“It's bad for him, but it's bad for the club. He's penalised the club. The player is a big boy. He can do what he wants and handle the consequences, but he has penalised the club: through the image he's given, and what he said. I know this new generation of players and many of them spend their time feeling sorry for themselves. But you can't do that.”
Aside from Aurier, Blanc barely has a player missing. Marco Verratti may not yet be fit enough to start and Javier Pastore has a calf problem but otherwise they are all fit. Chelsea, on the other hand, are without their captain, John Terry who may have played his last European away tie for the club. Last year, PSG were timid and deferential in the home leg against Chelsea – this season they have to be better.
- Telegraph