Chelsea dealt major blow ahead of Paris Saint-Germain Champions League showdown

Paris Saint-Germain have been provided with a major advantage ahead of their Champions League double-header with Chelsea.

On Friday morning, the defending champions were handed a last-16 tie against opponents in Chelsea who defeated them in the Club World Cup final in July.

Luis Enrique and Liam Rosenior would have preferred to have avoided each other until the latter stages of the competition.

Nevertheless, the pair - who are no strangers to each other courtesy of Rosenior's time with Strasbourg - will face off on March 11 and March 17 respectively.

Both clubs had been scheduled to play a league fixture between the first leg in Paris and reverse fixture in London.

PSG handed major boost ahead of Chelsea tie

However, Ligue 1 has accepted a request from PSG to move their fixture against Nantes to another date.

In a statement released on Saturday, Ligue 1 said: "At the request of Paris Saint-Germain, in order to best prepare for their two-legged tie against Chelsea in the Champions League round of 16, the LFP Board of Directors, after agreement with FC Nantes, has decided that the Paris Saint-Germain - FC Nantes match will be played the week of April 20.

"The exact date and time of this match will be determined later."

As it stands, it remains to be seen whether Chelsea will look to take a similar approach, but the Premier League has generally not accepted such requests over the years.

That said, in this particular instance, Chelsea and fellow Champions-League-participating Newcastle United - who they are due to play on March 14 with a 5.30pm kickoff - may both jump at the chance to reschedule if it was deemed to be a possibility.

How do Chelsea's and PSG's schedules compare?

From Sunday's Premier League fixture at Arsenal to March 21, Chelsea have a daunting seven-game run of matches.

Following the Arsenal game, Chelsea play further away fixtures at Aston Villa (Premier League), Wrexham (FA Cup) and PSG.

In four instances across the next three weeks, Chelsea have just three days between matches. There is a four-day gap on two occasions.

As for PSG, they play just four times between March 1 and March 22. They will have one extra day to prepare for the first leg against Chelsea, and three more days to prepare for the second game in England.

Meanwhile, the French giants play just once between today and March 11, whereas Chelsea have three matches before the contest in Paris.