• Champions League

PSG boast of no distractions

PSG's Edinson Cavani has scored 14 Ligue 1 goals this season © Getty Images

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Paris Saint-Germain will go into their Champions League quarter-final clash against Chelsea high on confidence and without any domestic distractions, according to chief executive Jean-Claude Blanc.

PSG are sitting comfortably at the top of Ligue 1, eight points clear of their closest challengers Monaco and Blanc claims they have the rare advantage of being able to focus on the Champions League and build their worldwide reputation.

Blanc told Infosport+: "We have a gap to maintain in the league, which allows us to remain concentrated on the Champions League and which allows the club to take on a world dimension.

"We're proud to be among the eight last clubs in the competition. Our squad has a year's more experience, but we have a lot of respect for Chelsea. We'll go into the two games with a lot of conviction."

Chelsea travel to Paris on Wednesday April 2, with the return leg at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday April 8, but Jose Mourinho's side are embroiled in a tense Premier League title race and the Portuguese manager is bound to be envious of the lack of pressure on PSG in the French league.

The two clubs have met just once, during the 2004-05 Champions League group stage, when Chelsea won 3-0 in Paris with the return match in London ending in a goalless draw.

This year's meeting is unlikely to be as one-sided and Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay acknowledged it could be a tricky fixture for his side.

"It was always going to be tough when you looked at the teams who were left in the draw," he told Chelsea's official website. "It's the top eight teams, Paris Saint-Germain is a very tough game but we'll be ready for the first match.

"Our form is good, we've got a lot of games between now and the end of the season. We're in a good position in the Premier League so we just need to take it one game at a time, try and win every game and see how everybody else does around us.

"We will treat Paris Saint-Germain with the utmost respect and hopefully we can go there, put on a show for our fans and bring it back to Stamford Bridge."

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