Pastore stunner leaves Chelsea on ropes

A fantastic late goal from Javier Pastore left Chelsea’s hopes of making it to the Champions League semi-finals looking bleak as Paris Saint-Germain gained a deserved 3-1 victory in the first leg of their tie.
Ezequiel Lavezzi shocked Chelsea from the start by firing PSG into an early lead, before Eden Hazard tucked away a penalty after a foul by Thiago Silva just afterwards.
Yet PSG improved after the break and retook the lead through a David Luiz own goal from a Lavezzi free-kick.
A 2-1 victory looked on the cards until Pastore scored a magnificent goal deep in injury-time to stun the visitors.
PSG got off to the best possible start when a poor defensive header from John Terry fell to Ezequiel Lavezzi, who spun and crashed a fine effort past Petr Cech to put the hosts into an early lead.
Chelsea began to grow into the game having been forced to chase it, and soon had the opportunity to make a breakthrough.
Thiago Silva uncharacteristically made a rash challenge to dive in on Oscar, and Eden Hazard coolly rolled the penalty into the corner to put Chelsea in the lead in the tie.
Immediately as the second half began, Ramires was fortunate not to be sent off after getting away with a challenge which perhaps should have been a second yellow.
And Chelsea’s shaky start continued when Lavezzi volleyed just over for the hosts.
José Mourinho decided to send on a more recognisable striker, replacing Andre Schurrle with Fernando Torres, but before the Spaniard could get a touch, Chelsea were again behind.
Ezequiel Lavezzi was again the creator, sweeping in a suberb free-kick from the left, which just eluded not only the Chelsea defenders but also the PSG attackers.
The power, however, was enough to confuse David Luiz, who could not react quick enough when it struck him and dribbled into the net.
PSG then suffered a problem of their own as Ibrahimovic was forced to withdraw through injury, replaced by Lucas Moura.
The Brazilian was inches away from scoring one of the greatest goals of all time with a superhuman run in PSG’s match against Marseille earlier in the season, and he almost replicated the run here, skipping past several challenges with glee before feeding Cavani, but the big striker’s touch let him down.
Although PSG had been by far the better team in the second half, they were struggling to find another goal, but they did not settle for the win, and in the third minute of injury time, Javier Pastore danced from out wide past several defenders before firing a fierce low shot beneath Cech to send the Parc des Princes wild.
Chelsea are still in the tie, but the late goal will make their hopes far more faint.
PSG, meanwhile, could be about to have their breakthrough result into the ranks of Europe’s elite.