Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho: Eden Hazard needs better protection from officials

 
Rough stuff: Eden Hazard
Simon Johnson18 February 2015

Jose Mourinho has accused Paris St Germain of using rough tactics to stop Eden Hazard and urged match officials to give him more protection in the return leg.

Chelsea winger Hazard was fouled a total of nine times by six different players during the first leg of their last-16 Champions League tie last night.

Only two of them, Marco Verratti and Gregory van der Wiel, were shown a yellow card by referee Cuneyt Çakir for their challenges.

But the former was lucky to escape a red following a two-footed lunge.

The Belgium international, who has been fouled 14 times more than anyone else in the Premier League, looked in agony a number of times but still completed the 90 minutes. Chelsea boss Mourinho is furious at his treatment by PSG, as well as opponents domestically, and wants stiffer punishments when the two sides meet again at Stamford Bridge in three weeks’ time.

When asked if he felt the Chelsea winger was deliberately targeted by PSG, he said: “You know, I’m a bit surprised with the question because you bring it to the discussion with me in a Champions League game.

“We have already had 25 matches in the Premier League and it’s not different. This is an important point.

“We all know the player is a very good player. As an opponent, you have to keep a certain attitude with him.

“But you brought the [PSG] team into discussion, not me, and probably I don’t want to do your job obviously... but probably you should bring the point back to England.

“What can be done to protect him? Give cards to the opponent, follow the rules of the game. It’s as simple as that. What happened against PSG, for example with Verratti: another kind of player who stays on the floor, rolls on the grass and screams, asking for cards as he goes to ground.

“But Eden’s pure. He’s pure. When he goes to the floor he goes down for some reasons. Against PSG there were nine fouls. In the Premier League it’s no different. At Stoke, which was an unbelievable situation, this is what happens game after game.”

PSG v Chelsea - player ratings

1/22

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Sign up you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy notice .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in