On the eve of Tuesday’s Champions League last-16 second leg at Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain manager Luis Enrique warned: “We will have moments of suffering.”
As it turns out, he need not have worried.
On a humbling night for Liam Rosenior’s Chelsea side, PSG thoroughly outclassed their inferior opponents, winning 3-0 on the night and 8-2 on aggregate.
Much of the subdued contest at Stamford Bridge resembled a training-ground exercise for Luis Enrique’s slick side, with ‘oles’ ringing out from the away supporters midway through the first half.
In a campaign in which PSG have shown flashes of brilliance — the 7-2 demolition of Bayer Leverkusen, defeating Barcelona away, the 5-0 victory over Marseille in Le Classique — they have not always found it easy to hit the dizzying heights of last season.
Admittedly, having put six trophies in the cabinet last year, that was always a tall order.
However, their demolition of Chelsea over two legs suggests they could be peaking at the perfect time.
Having been hampered by injuries all season — affecting virtually every first-team player — Luis Enrique was only missing Fabian Ruiz for this trip to London.
Luis Enrique is aiming to win the Champions League in consecutive seasons (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
With Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue, in particular, missing much of the season through injury, the head coach was able to call on his full array of rich attacking talents.
He picked Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to start ahead of Doue and the decision paid off. That followed his devastating impact from the bench in the first leg, when he scored twice and assisted another in a 28-minute cameo.
That swung the tie — delicately poised when Kvaratskhelia was introduced at 2-2 — to 5-2 and, in truth, there was no coming back from that for Chelsea.
Kvaratskhelia, who now has seven goals and four assists in the Champions League this season, carried that form into the second leg.
He opened the scoring after six minutes, wriggling away from Mamadou Sarr following a long ball from goalkeeper Matvei Safonov and finishing with a smartly-taken left-foot shot.
Hugging the left touchline, Kvaratskhelia posed a constant threat all game, with PSG looking to exploit the space behind Sarr, playing at right-back.
Kvaratskhelia, a scurrying winger who feels like a throwback with his socks around his ankles, has the double threat of being able to burn a defender with his pace or cut inside on a mazy dribble. He gave Sarr an evening to forget and the young Senegalese defender, playing in his first Champions League match, was taken off at half-time by Rosenior.
With PSG cruising in the second half — especially after Senny Mayulu added a third — Kvaratskhelia was substituted with 20 minutes remaining, walking off in front of the boisterous away end to a rapturous reception.
Another PSG forward in excellent form is Bradley Barcola. After failing to register a goal in the Champions League in over a year, he now has two in a week, and both were excellent finishes. Since the start of 2026, Barcola has seven goals in 15 appearances.
All of that points to a team building momentum at the most important point of the season.
After last year’s incredible success, PSG have had a few bumps in the road this campaign, not helped by the lack of a proper pre-season after reaching the Club World Cup final.
In spite of their wealth of attacking options, they have been more unpredictable this season and shown a defensive vulnerability, conceding three goals at home to a struggling Tottenham Hotspur (they still won 5-3), for example. On Tuesday, Rosenior’s side managed 18 shots.
PSG were also defeated by Paris FC in the Coupe de France in January, a competition they have won for the past two years. In their previous Champions League tie (the play-off against Monaco), they only squeezed through 5-4 aggregate. They then lost at home to the same opponents in Ligue 1 before the first leg of this Chelsea tie.
There have also been off-field distractions. Last month it was revealed that defender Achraf Hakimi will face trial following an allegation of rape. The Moroccan said in a statement posted on X that he denied the accusation against him.
However, PSG have often found a way of dragging themselves over the line, with a number of notable late goals, against the likes of Nice, Barcelona and Marseille in the Trophee des Champions.
Their dominant performances against Chelsea — who have admittedly kept just one clean sheet in their past 14 matches — over the two games suggest they are finding their groove when it matters most, much like in the Champions League last season.
They also showed a ruthless and clinical edge throughout this tie.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Luis Enrique told reporters: “We’ve always had confidence in this team. But it’s normal — people expect us to win every match easily because of last season. That’s impossible in football. No team in history has done that. We had difficulties, injuries… but we kept going. Overall, we’re having a very good season and we’re happy with where we are.”
Of course, PSG came into this game fresher than their opponents, who lost 1-0 at home to Newcastle United on Saturday evening. PSG were permitted the weekend off, having originally been scheduled to play at home to struggling Nantes, after being granted their request by the Ligue de Football Professionnel, who look to help French clubs in European competitions.
That decision angered Nantes supporters, especially with the club in a relegation battle, as they felt they could have benefited from PSG resting some of their star players.
At their following match, at home to Angers, leaflets were distributed by fans that showed their owner, Waldemar Kita, polishing PSG owner Nasser al-Khelaifi’s shoes, RMC Sport reported. It said: ‘Kita se met encore à genoux’ (Kita is on his knees again’), as well as ‘Nouvelle Multipropriete: Le FCN devient la pute du PSG’, which translates as ‘New multi-club ownership: Nantes become PSG’s bitch.’ That match has been rescheduled for the week of April 20, where Nantes will now have three potentially pivotal games in a week.
PSG’s main challengers, RC Lens, also missed the chance to leapfrog them at the top of Ligue 1, losing away to Lorient. That keeps PSG one point ahead of Pierre Sage’s side, albeit with a game in hand.
Both domestically and in Europe, it has therefore been a brilliant week for PSG.
There is still a long way to go, but Luis Enrique’s side appear to have found their rhythm at a crucial moment.