Mikel upbeat about Chelsea´s qualification hopes

John Obi Mikel believes his first-half strike against Paris Saint-Germain gives Chelsea a chance of reaching the Champions League quarter-finals.

The Nigerian midfielder fired home an equaliser just before half-time in the first leg on Tuesday, having earlier deflected Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s free-kick beyond Thibaut Courtois.

Chelsea were unable to hold on to a draw in Paris, though, and slipped to a 2-1 defeat as Edinson Cavani struck the winning goal four minutes after coming on as a substitute.

Despite trailing heading into the second leg, Mikel says there are plenty of positives and hopes home advantage will play a part.

“We have an away goal and hopefully we can capitalise on that at home,” he told the club’s official website.

“We want to play and keep doing what we’ve been doing. It’s our first loss under the new manager but we’re not out of the tie yet.

“We’ve still got the second leg to play and hopefully we can build on the goal we have.

“When we play at home we need to make sure we get a good result and go through.”