Paris Saint-Germain manager Laurent Blanc has called on his players not to react to provocation from Chelsea striker Diego Costa during the return leg of their Round of 16 Champions League tie on Wednesday.
The Ligue 1 club hold a 2-1 lead heading into the second leg at Stamford Bridge and Blanc knows that keeping his full complement of players on the pitch will be vital to his sides hopes of progressing to the quarter-finals.
Blanc said of the fiery Spaniard: "There are two facets to Diego Costa: the player and the man. The player I like very much, a centre-forward who can score a lot of goals, has good movement, who works hard for the team. I'm a big fan of the player.
"We also know the man — a man who likes contact, duels, challenges, even provocation at times. That's part of his game. We saw that last year. He's a player used to playing like that.
"I'll tell my players not to respond to that. We have to keep cool in the face of provocation.
"We'll need all our strengths at our disposal tomorrow in a tight game. We need to stay with 11 on the field to enjoy a good game, so we can't respond to any provocation, be it from Diego Costa or anyone else.
"We're away from home and were made to pay with ten men last year. So we have to stay calm."
Source: tribalfootball.com