Paris: Paris St-Germain must be ruthless in front of goal when they take on 2012 winners Chelsea in a Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday, according to coach Laurent Blanc.
The Ligue 1 champions-elect are on an eight-game winning streak in all competitions, but the former France centre-back knows Chelsea, under Jose Mourinho, have the experience and defensive know-how to strangle any opposition.
“We will have to be more efficient,” said Blanc. “We will have fewer chances and those we create we will have to convert.
“We know we need to be at another level.”
Blanc’s expensively assembled squad have no equals in the domestic league, leading second-placed Monaco by 13 points with seven games left this season.
PSG also sailed through to the knockout stages of the Champions League from a group featuring Anderlecht, Porto and Olympiakos Piraeus before dismissing Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16.
The key to both games against Chelsea could be Blanc’s red-hot striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Swedish international is the runaway leading scorer in Ligue 1 this term with 25 goals, 11 ahead of teammate Edinson Cavani and Alexandre Lacazette of Olympique Lyon, who share second place.
Ibrahimovic has also excelled in the Champions League, bagging 10 goals in this season’s competition.
