Thibaut Courtois Justifies 1st-Team Champions League Return for Chelsea

PARC DES PRINCES, PARIS — Chelsea have Thibaut Courtois to thank for saving their bacon in Paris on Tuesday, earning his side a 1-1 draw with Paris Saint-Germain after a fine display.

On the whole, Chelsea were good value for the result, and Jose Mourinho will feel justified in his decision to reinstate Courtois to first-team duties after he was left out of Chelsea's most recent outing against Everton.

Petr Cech performed excellently last week, though Courtois repaid Mourinho's faith when he kept Zlatan Ibrahimovic at bay with some world-class saves, including a bouncing header late on.

What will concern Mourinho, however, is that Courtois came out as Chelsea's clear Man of the Match.

It wasn't supposed to happen that way.

Despite some early pressure from PSG, Chelsea had been in control of this tie and should have seen it out to claim an important away victory.

Michel Euler/Associated Press

Instead, they continued their worrying habit of allowing teams to get back into matches—think Liverpool in the Capital One Cup semi-final—coming away from the game with a result that could have been so much better.

Playing in the Champions League last 16, it's inevitable the opposition, regardless of their standing, are going to have spells of dominance.

Laurent Blanc's men had just that in the early exchanges here, but when Branislav Ivanovic scored after 36 minutes, the game looked like it was going only one way.

The home side were there for the taking, appearing low on confidence after a spat of injuries had ravaged their squad.

It was a complete reverse of what we witnessed in the Parc des Princes last season, when PSG got at Chelsea and came away with a 3-1 victory. Now Chelsea were the dominant side, the team expected to win.

Mourinho's side showed more resolve this time out—a sign of what the manager explained pre-match when he suggested we would see a different Chelsea to the one from last year's trip to the French capital.

Chelsea squeezed the life out of the first half from the moment Ivanovic scored, and they seemed to be doing a good job of it after the interval until Edinson Cavani's 54th-minute header.

Christophe Ena/Associated Press

From that moment it became the Courtois Show, and the Belgian was more than up for the challenge.

Indeed, given the recent form of Cech, Mourinho has got himself an enviable problem at Chelsea.

Right now there's cigarette paper dividing his goalkeepers, and it's a tough decision as to who he should pick.

Speaking after the game, the Chelsea boss explained he was all too aware of that fact.

"If football was nine outfield players plus two goalkeepers, we would give no other team a chance," said Mourinho.

"We would be phenomenal because [Courtois and Cech] are both phenomenal."

Only football isn't like that, and a team including the talents of Eden Hazard and Diego Costa needs to be doing better.

This was a positive display in the sense that Chelsea were able to see it through for a draw, but the fact they missed out on a big opportunity to set down a marker for their European campaign does leave a sour taste.

Courtois has reminded us that beyond John Terry and Gary Cahill there is another line of defence to keep strikers at bay, though Chelsea can't always rely on him.

The away goal scored means they have the advantage in this tie as we head into the second leg at Stamford Bridge in three weeks.

For Mourinho's sake, though, hopefully his goalkeeper will not be the Chelsea hero again.

Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes