LONDON: A goal from Edinson Cavani secured a 1-1 draw for Paris St Germain with Chelsea as both of Tuesday’s opening Champions League last 16 first-leg matches ended in draws.

Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk drew 0-0 at ‘home’ in Lviv against German giants Bayern Munich, who played the last 25 minutes with just 10 men as Spanish veteran Xabi Alonso marked his 100th appearance in the competition in unmemorable fashion by being sent off.

Cavani struck in the 54th minute with a downward header to cancel out Branislav Ivanovic’s looping header in the 36th, which was scored against the run of play after the French champions had dominated from the start at the Parc des Princes.

Chelsea, who won last year’s quarter-final with PSG on away goals, scored with their only chance while the hosts had several opportunities to take a lead into the second leg through Cavani and Zlatan Ibrahimovic but failed to take them.

The return will be played at Stamford Bridge on March 11 with Chelsea in command after Ivanovic’s away goal.

“The result is not in our favour, but what I retain is the spirit my players showed,” PSG coach Laurent Blanc said. “It’s the game we wanted, except for the goal we conceded. But there are a lot of very, very positive things to take.”

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho told ITV: “We could have lost, so I think the result is a positive one... against a very good team with fantastic technical players. It was a difficult match.”

On a freezing night in Ukraine, Alonso was dismissed after 65 minutes following a second booking from Spanish referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco. Bayern, though, had the better chances but were thwarted by determined defending from Shakhtar and some poor shooting.

Shakhtar’s solid rearguard display maintained their chances of reaching the Champions league quarter-finals for the second time while Pep Guardiola’s Bayern will need to adopt a less cautious approach in the return leg in Munich on March 11.

“We had more chances to score. Shakhtar Donetsk had none, zero,” Guardiola said. “Maybe for the next game in Munich our target, our game, will be completely different.”

Shakhtar boss Mircea Lucescu, however, was left ruing a missed opportunity.

“The first plan was not to lose,” said Lucescu. “The second was to keep our chances alive for the second leg. We did that. What I regret is that we didn’t try to play our game when Bayern were down to 10 men.

Published in Dawn February 19th , 2015

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