Mourinho sees similarities between Paris Saint-Germain of today and Chelsea of 2004

Portuguese manager maintains Parisians are favourites to win quarter-final tie

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho attends a press conference at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris on April 1, 2014. Ian Langsdon / EPA

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho on Tuesday likened the current Paris Saint-Germain side to the team he managed at Stamford Bridge 10 years ago as the clubs prepare to meet in the Uefa Champions League.

Wednesday's quarter-final first leg at the Parc des Princes is a repeat of Mourinho's first European game in charge of Chelsea, which an English side containing Petr Cech, John Terry and Frank Lampard won 3-0 in the group stage in September 2004.

Back then, while PSG struggled to live in the shadows of Lyon in their domestic game, Chelsea were emerging as a major power in Europe a year on from the arrival of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich as owner.

Under Mourinho, the Blues never made it beyond the semi-finals in the Champions League, a trophy they finally won in 2012 before also winning the Europa League last season.

But while Chelsea are firmly established as one of Europe’s elite, PSG are less than three years into an ambitious project led by their mega-rich Qatari owners, something that reminds Mourinho of what he first walked into at Stamford Bridge.

“You can find similarities. When Mr Abramovich bought the club he was ready and keen and the football rules were open to that, so the investment was important,” said the Portuguese, who also hinted that Uefa’s new Financial Fair Play rules, which limit what clubs can spend, may eventually have an impact on Paris.

“Ours was probably the most important investment in that period and, as a consequence of that, Chelsea built year after year some of the best teams in European football.

“Paris is doing the same. Some people don’t understand very well how it will look with Financial Fair Play, but the reality is that in the last two years the investment was massive, that the choice of players was fantastic.

“Leonardo [the former sporting director] started here a fantastic period of spending money but buying the right players.

“At this moment, the team is full of really good players, the passion in the city is also good and the Parc des Princes is a beautiful place to play.

“Now they are dominant in France the same way Chelsea was chasing season after season the Champions League, reaching semi-finals and finals. They are doing the same and they want to win.”

Despite the differing levels of experience between the two clubs at this level and the fact that Mourinho has won the Champions League twice, with Porto and Inter Milan, he said he believes PSG have enough in their squad to be considered favourites to win the tie.

“I don’t think experience plays a big role. Maybe Paris as a club over the past decade doesn’t have the same experience, but you go player by player and the picture is not like that.

“Thiago [Silva], Alex, [Thiago] Motta, Maxwell, Ibrahimovic, [Edinson] Cavani, all of them, they have big experience in the competition.

“In our case, as a club we are in the Champions League season after season and we have a nucleus of players who have played lots of games, but we also have others with no experience.”

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