
Interim
boss Guus Hiddink admits Chelsea face a period of uncertainty and transition
in the absence of Champions League football.
The Blues were dumped out of Europe as Paris Saint-Germain won 2-1 at
Stamford Bridge for a 4-2 aggregate success in the last-16 tie on Wednesday.
Chelsea are well adrift of qualifying through the Premier League - the Blues
are 10th, 10 points behind fourth-placed Manchester City with nine games
remaining - 10 months after winning the title.
"Chelsea is now in a transition period," said Hiddink, who has restored
stability following a turbulent start to the season under Jose Mourinho.
"They have to see how to go on and try to regain the lost terrain where
Chelsea used to be. Chelsea must consider its short [term] future, and how
to handle this."
Diego Costa cancelled out Adrien Rabiot's opener to give Chelsea hope of at
least forcing extra time, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic put the game beyond the
Blues with a second-half strike.
Rabiot's finish allowed PSG to take control of the tie with an early away
goal, and Hiddink felt his side afforded their opponents too much respect
from kick-off.
"I am disappointed," he told the club's website. "When you analyse the game
we started too respectfully in the first 10 or 15 minutes, but they are a
team who know the short possession game very well and you must be careful
not to be outplayed in the first part of the match.
"We were too respectful but later on, at 1-0 down, we lost that wrong
respect and we tried to defend more forcefully, we won duels and we got a
deserved equaliser.
"There were chances both ways after that in the first half. In the second
half we pushed, we tried to make it 2-1. We had chances to score in the 65th
minute, we didn't do so and in the 67th minute with a little attack they
killed the game."