Paris Saint-Germain manager Laurent Blanc believes that Chelsea's experience was the deciding factor in their Champions League quarter-final second leg.
The French side took a 3-1 lead to Stamford Bridge on Tuesday but were knocked out on away goals following strikes from Andre Schurrle and Demba Ba.
Blanc was left ruing the fine margins between success and failure, including several missed chances - most notably by £50m-man Edinson Cavani - but conceded that Chelsea's regular involvement on Europe's biggest stage ended up deciding who went through to the last four of the competition.
"Overall, in my opinion, the difference was not huge," Blanc told UEFA's official website. "We could have gone through but, unfortunately for us, it's Chelsea who do. But the level of both teams, in my opinion, was very close.
"Over the two matches there was very little between the two sides - ultimately, though, I think Chelsea's experience of playing at this level of the competition made the very small difference.
"Ironically, we started better in the second leg than the first. In the first 25 minutes we were fine. We conceded a key goal from a throw-in and that put us in big trouble, giving confidence to Chelsea. Then, in the second period, they tried to pile pressure on to make us suffer. Unfortunately we did not take our chances."
PSG were playing in a Champions League quarter-final for only the third time in their history.
Joe Fish
