'They did it first' is John Terry's response to Zlatan Ibrahimovic's 'babies' swipe
Chelsea captain John Terry has defended his team’s conduct after Paris Saint-Germain's Zlatan Ibrahimovic accused the players of behaving like ‘babies’ during the Champion’s League tie on Wednesday. Nine Blues players, including Terry, surrounded referee Bjorn Kuipers after Ibrahimovic’s foul on Oscar after 31 minutes, which subsequently ended in the Swede getting sent off.
Despite being down to 10 men for an hour-and-a-half, including extra-time, PSG knocked out Chelsea by virtue of away goals.
Most of the footballing world has been critical of the reaction by Jose Mourinho’s men prior to the red card. Ibrahimovic later came out to call the Chelsea players babies for the conduct.
Terry, however, has come out to narrate his version of what transpired during the incident.
He said, “Once they're charging the ref, the only thing we can do is respond. You can't as a group of players let them surround the ref, trying to get our players booked.”
“For me, if I have to run 20, 30 yards, it doesn't look great, but when you're standing back and seeing five or six of their players surrounding the ref, for me I think I support my teammates.”
“And once I go, four or five go with me. It doesn't look good at all, but that's part of the game. We'll match it if people want to mix it, that's part of our game as well.
“You have to stick up for your teammates. Every other side is as bad as each other. It's part of the game.”
Time to concentrate on the league: John Terry
PSG came back from behind twice to earn a 2-2 draw and advance to the quarter-finals on away goals after a 1-1 draw in the first leg at Parc des Princes last month.
Terry went on to say that Chelsea now need to concentrate on the Premier League now that they are out of Europe. They will be playing Southampton on Sunday and need to win in order to maintain their advantage over the chasing pack. The Blues have a five-point lead in the top of the table and a game in hand.
The 34-year-old said, “We have to pick ourselves up and go again at the weekend now. There's enough experience in the squad to rally round and get everyone going again.”
“We've got the Capital One Cup in the pocket and the Premier League is a massive one to go for. The manager said that if we can win the Capital One Cup and the Premier League, it will be a very successful year.”
“There is an awful lot to do, but it's in our hands and we have to respond. We're a few points clear and we need to keep that gap and maintain it. We can only do that by responding and doing that the right way and coming back here and picking up three points. We've got another big game against a very good Southampton side.”
“Southampton will come here playing on the front foot and, if we're not at it, we'll drop points and slip away in the Premier League."
Chelsea has been the most consistent English side in Europe in recent years
Chelsea, who won the Champions League in 2012 and went till the semi-finals last season, have been the most consistent English side in the Champions League in recent years.
Manchester City or Arsenal, who are still mathematically in the competition, play away against Barcelona and Monaco respectively next week but face an uphill task of overturning first-leg deficits.
Terry said, “We've had our fair share of maintaining interest for English sides in the competition over the years. It's different for us -- we're normally in the hat for the next round.
“We're obviously really disappointed. We regroup and go again in this competition next season.”