Hurting Chelsea more dangerous – Silva

Paris Saint-Germain captain Thiago Silva believes Chelsea will be more dangerous in the Champions League as they look to salvage something from their season.

Jose Mourinho’s men have drawn the Ligue 1 champions in the last 16, with their Premier League campaign continuing to fall apart.

Chelsea suffered a 2-1 loss at Leicester City on Monday for their ninth defeat in 16 league games, leaving them just a point above the relegation zone.

Silva is wary of the hurting Londoners and knows just how desperate they will be in Europe.

“A lot [more dangerous]. If you know a little about football, today PSG is the favourite to advance to the quarter-finals, and that is a great responsibility,” he told Omnisport after the draw.

“It can be good for the fans, but this is an extra pressure. We sort of have the obligation to pass this phase.

“But we all know that football is a very tight game, even more when it comes to the Champions League.

“If you play a derby it doesn’t matter if you are in a better moment, in the pitch is all the same. So, in this phase of the Champions League there are no favourites.

“And we are playing the second game away. So I think it’s a 50-50 chance for each side.”

PSG overcame Chelsea at the same stage last season before suffering a 5-1 aggregate loss to Barcelona.

Silva said it was as good a draw as his team could have hoped for.

“It is a very good rival, but we can dream about going to the quarter-finals like we did last year,” he said.

“We wanted to avoid the strongest teams. We couldn’t play against Real [Madrid], because they were in our group, but we could play against Barcelona and Bayern [Munich].

“Putting aside these two, all the others we could play in equal conditions and have a clear opportunity to advance to the quarter-finals. We hope we have the same luck as last year.”