PSG, Benfica advance

LONDON — Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored the winner as Paris St Germain beat Chelsea 2-1 to knock it out of the Champions League for the second successive season at Stamford Bridge Wednesday. PSG’s victory after its 2-1 first-leg win in Paris put Laurent Blanc’s team into the last eight for the fourth successive season 4-2 on aggregate. Earlier, in Saint Petersburg, Nicolas Gaitan and Talisca scored late goals as Benfica came from behind to beat Zenit Saint Petersburg 2-1 and march on to the quarterfinals 3-1 on aggregate. Trailing 1-0 from last month’s first leg, Zenit leveled the tie when Hulk opened the scoring in the 69th minute and extra time was looming when Gaitan stunned the Petrovsky Stadium by netting at the other end five minutes from time. Substitute Talisca wrapped up the victory with the last kick of the game as the Portuguese league leader progressed to the last eight of the Champions League for the first time since 2012, when it also eliminated Zenit at this stage. A composed display built on superb passing outclassed the English champion and confirmed the runaway Ligue 1 leader PSG as one of the favorites to win this season’s premier European club competition. PSG went ahead in the 16th minute when Angel Di Maria found Ibrahimovic, sent off when the sides clashed at the same stage a year ago, wide on the right. The 34-year-old Swedish striker’s cross eluded the defense for Adrian Rabiot to tap in, giving Thibaut Courtois no chance. But Chelsea, without injured skipper John Terry at the back, recovered with neat moves of its own and equalized with a superbly constructed goal when Diego Costa checked past Thiago Silva to fire wide of Kevin Trapp after 27 minutes. The host, however, lost its cutting edge when Costa went off injured and Ibrahimovic turned in Di Maria’s cross from close range after 67 minutes, meaning Chelsea needed to score three times to win the tie. “It was a difficult game for us but we never change our philosophy, we try to play with the ball and create gaps to score,” PSG’s former Chelsea defender David Luiz told BT Sport. Chelsea’s interim manager Guus Hiddink bemoaned the gulf in quality between the sides. “You saw the difference between the squads when we had to bring young guys on and they have Edinson Cavani to come in,” the Dutchman said. Chelsea, languishing 10th in the domestic standings, now has the FA Cup as its only hope of a trophy this season as PSG eyes bigger prizes. Benfica traveled to Russia with the edge in the tie thanks to a solitary late strike by Jonas in the first leg last month but Zenit will rue a host of missed chances in the second half at the Petrovsky Stadium as its dream of reaching the Champions League last eight for the first time died in the chill of Saint Petersburg. Zenit’s Portuguese coach Andre Villas-Boas, who will leave the club at the end of the season, has hurt Benfica in the past when in charge of Porto and he would have been confident of turning this tie around against a diminished visiting side. The Portuguese league leader was without a host of key players due to injury and suspension, including towering center-back Luisao, Jardel, Lisandro Lopez, Andre Almeida and goalkeeper Julio Cesar. “With full respect to our opponents I was confident that we would make it through to the quarter-finals before kick-off,” Benfica coach Rui Vitoria said. “We played really well, we scored two goals and I believe we were the better side and won deservedly.” “Everything went the wrong way for us in the last minutes just like in the first game,” Villas-Boas said.