PARIS — Like it or not, Paris Saint-Germain are still the team to beat in the Champions League. Why? The reigning champions can reach levels that the rest can only dream of, and PSG simply blew Chelsea away when they slipped through the gears.

This has been a season of inconsistency and ups-and-downs for PSG, but the side that won the Champions League in such devastating form last season has apparently been lying in wait at Parc des Princes, ready to reawaken. And that moment came as this round-of-16 first-leg tie approached its final fifteen minutes in Paris.

Chelsea had fought back twice to make it 2-2 on the night and the Premier League side threatened to turn the game on its head and take the lead ahead of next Tuesday’s second-leg at Stamford Bridge. But then it happened.

A mistake by goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen — surprisingly selected ahead of first-choice Robert Sánchez — gifted the ball to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and it ended up with Vitinha, who lofted the ball over Jorgensen to make it 3-2. For Chelsea, it marked their third error leading to goal in the Champions League this season — only on-the-verge-of-relegation Tottenham has more among Premier League teams with six.

From that point onwards, PSG — and especially substitute Kvaratskhelia — were unstoppable. They were ruthless, and a game that was drifting towards a draw — or even a Chelsea win — ended with PSG claiming a 5-2 victory.

– Predicting 2026 Champions League winner based on past winners
– Ranked: 10 worst Premier League teams, relative to spending
– Havertz haunts ex-club, giving Arsenal time to prove they’re Europe’s best

Now, PSG are overwhelming favourites to comfortably reach the quarterfinals. Last season, a similar spark propelled PSG to Champions League glory. In January 2025, PSG fell 2-0 behind at home to Manchester City, who scored twice shortly after the start of the second-half, and the French side were heading out of the competition in the League Phase. But by the end of that game, PSG had won 4-2 and it transformed their season. They never looked back.

Chelsea certainly didn’t help themselves. PSG scored five goals from an expected goals of just 0.87 — that +4.13 goal-above-expected is the second highest in a Champions League knockout match in 15 years. The error that allowed PSG to score the go-ahead goal was a big culprit.

But in the end, Chelsea were the victims of another PSG surge, and it was the home side’s breathless performance in the final 15 minutes that will send put the rest of Europe on notice.

“The last 15-20 minutes were crazy, but that’s on me,” Chelsea coach Liam Rosenior said. “We need to better when setbacks happen, be calm and collected, and that didn’t happen.

“It’s a painful one because we were in the tie for 75 minutes. We have shot ourselves in the foot, made the tie very difficult now and the fifth goal is the painful one.”

PSG simply have incredible attacking talent and it all clicked against Chelsea, starting with Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Dembélé‘s first-half goals — Dembele’s counter-attack goal was a stunning example of the pace PSG possess.

Chelsea were able to expose PSG’s defensive frailties, equalising twice through Malo Gusto and Enzo Fernández, but Enrique’s forwards are so potent that they are able to make up for the lapses at the back that have affected the team all season.

Will those issues cost them a back-to-back Champions League title? That’s the risk, especially after the inexplicable decision to offload Gianluigi Donnarumma to City in the summer following the signing of Lucas Chevalier.

Chevalier has had a difficult first season in Paris and he was on the bench again, overlooked in favour of the inconsistent Matvey Safonov, who should have saved Gusto’s goal.

Perhaps PSG can ride it out all the way to another final simply because they have so much firepower upfront, but they will have to repeat the form that overran Chelsea to ensure that their defensive problems don’t prove to be their downfall.

If Kvaratskhelia can continue to play as he did in the final 15 minutes, PSG will be too strong for every other team left in the competition.

The Georgia winger made it 4-2 with a powerful curling shot from 20 yards on 86 minutes and then put the game seemingly beyond Chelsea’s reach with another, deep into stoppage time.

But even before he started scoring, the former Napoli player destroyed Chelsea’s right flank and it was clear that he was burning with determination to make a point to Enrique for starting him on the bench in the first place.

When Kvaratskhelia hit PSG’s fifth, the Chelsea players slumped to the ground like a boxer that had taken too many blows.

“I think we showed today we are capable of everything,” Kvaratskhelia said. “We just have to continue like this. We conceded two goals and we can see the mistakes we made, but we are happy with a three goal victory. We are still PSG.”

Chelsea still have 90 minutes to turn the tie around next week, but they will know that PSG are more likely to pick them off on the counter-attack whenever they attempt to find the three goals needed to wipe out their deficit.

This was a brutal lesson for Chelsea. They looked like a team that could compete for 70 minutes, but then they encountered the European champions at the top of their game.

That PSG were able to just turn it on and dismantle a Premier League side as strong as Chelsea — a team that was able to beat PSG in the FIFA Club World Cup final last summer — underlined the power and quality that Enrique has at his disposal.

Yes, it has been difficult season for PSG, but they have shown their best again and nobody can live with them like this.

The Big Ten sent a letter to the NCAA this week asking the organization to put a halt to “investigations and infractions proceedings” related to tampering, according to a copy of the letter obtained by ESPN.

The letter states that the “current framework” for tampering rules “cannot be credibly or equitably enforced,” pointing out the rules for tampering were designed before a modern era that includes paying athletes and essentially unlimited transfers.

“These rules were not designed for a world in which student-athletes are compensated market participants making annual decisions with significant economic consequences,” the letter reads. “The collision between the old rules and new reality is producing outcomes that harm the population that the rules were designed to protect.”

The letter comes in the wake of a flurry of recent tampering headlines. That included the NCAA seeking to impose significant penalties against tampering offenders. The case of linebacker Luke Ferrelli, who transferred to Ole Miss after enrolling at Clemson, has also put the issue in the forefront.

The prevalence of tampering in the current landscape is so great that numerous officials told ESPN’s Max Olson that it’s essentially a competitive disadvantage to not tamper.

“If you’re not doing that, you’re so far behind in the game,” an SEC general manager told Olson.

The Big Ten’s letter lays out why the current rules are antiquated for the modern space, suggests a pause that “does not create a window of impunity” and lays out a vision for building “a framework suited to the world as it actually exists.”

The Big Ten letter states: “We are committed to engaging in an expeditious process to develop a modern framework for contact rules that addresses the varied challenges and opportunities of the current collegiate landscape.”

The letter shows portal numbers from this year (the first football season with just one portal period) that have not appeared publicly. That includes 1,000 football players who entered the portal on Jan. 2 and took campus visits the same weekend. More than 300 had signed with a new school by the end of the weekend. Some signed as quickly as 90 minutes into the portal opening, and others had a “do not contact” designation that essentially couldn’t exist without some type of fact finding to determine a new destination.

“These timelines reflect the reality of player movement and raise serious questions about whether the current regulatory structure can realistically accommodate the pace at which the modern transfer market operates,” the letter says.

The letter says the current framework “conflates” genuine predatory recruiting — in which a school targets a player under contract — with a far more common scenario in which a student-athlete already exploring options engages in conversations as part of a rational, market-driven evaluation.

“The world is materially different than in 2018 when the Division I membership adopted the existing contact rules and penalty structure,” the letter reads. “The House v. NCAA settlement transformed college athletics into an environment where student-athletes are compensated directly by institutions.”

The letter also notes that only 15 Level II or above tampering cases have been fully adjudicated by the NCAA in five years, including just three involving FBS football, one involving men’s basketball and zero involving women’s basketball.

The NCAA says its enforcement team processed around 90 impermissible contact cases last year, including major infractions by Oklahoma State’s women’s tennis program and UCLA’s cross country and track programs.

The Big Ten argues the dearth of tampering cases in a time when thousands of athletes are transferring every year proves that “consistent, equitable enforcement is no longer achievable” under current NCAA rules.

The letter also mentions legal scrutiny that has arisen.

“Continued enforcement of the current rules risks having the courts strike down the rules entirely,” the letter reads.

The letter argues the NCAA must change: “The system of college sports is under tremendous stress, both internally and externally. Systems adapt or they break.”

It lays out that the Big Ten would want an enforcement approach that would be “timely and meaningful, but able to be meted out fairly with penalties that are commensurate with the circumstances.”

The letter concludes by saying: “The Big Ten is committed to quickly engaging in a deliberative process drawing on athletics administrators, compliance professionals, coaches, legal counsel, and other stakeholders from across the membership and will work to produce a comprehensive proposal. We believe this collaborative, membership-driven approach is the best path to a durable solution and need the NCAA’s support in this effort.”

Team USA can breathe a sigh of relief, and they can thank Team Italy, the squad that put their World Baseball Classic hopes in limbo, after their win over Team Mexico on Tuesday night. 

With Italy’s 9-1 victory at Daikin Park, they have won Pool B with a perfect 4-0 record and earned a spot in the WBC quarterfinals. 

But Italy also ensured that Team USA’s run in the tournament continues despite handing the star-studded group a shocking 8-6 defeat on Monday night. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

Team USA knew going into this game they would be big fans of Italy, one of the more surprising teams of the tournament thus far, but a thrill to watch. They have the fun espresso home run celebration, which has been used a ton including Tuesday night’s game, and a mixture of veterans and top prospects who have been giving their pool fits on the field. 

However, Vinnie Pasquantino, the team’s captain who stars for the Kansas City Royals, came into this contest without a single hit through three games. Luckily for Italy – and indirectly the U.S. – his first three hits of the tournament were difference makers. 

Pasquantino belted three solo home runs in the win, marking the first time in WBC history that a player went yard three times in a single game. 

TEAM USA’S WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC HOPES TAKE MASSIVE HIT WITH ITALY UPSET

He got Team Italy on the board first in the top of the second, hitting a 342-foot blast to right field. Then, in the top of the sixth inning, he hit a towering shot that stayed fair down the right field line to take a free trip around the bases again. 

As he stepped to the plate in the top of the eighth inning, Pasquantino, already two espresso shots deep after his first two longballs, got just enough to get it over the right-field fence one last time. 

Jon Berti of the Italy reacts after hitting a solo home run in the fourth inning against Mexico during the 2026 World Baseball Classic – Pool B at Daikin Park on March 11, 2026 in Houston, Texas. (Houston Astros/Getty Images)

But, just like the other three games, there wasn’t only one Italy hitter showcasing his power. Jon Berti, who has had a great tournament thus far, made use of the Crawford boxes in left field, hitting one just far enough in the top of the fourth inning to extend Italy’s lead to 2-0. 

Meanwhile, Mexico couldn’t get the bats going against veteran hurler Aaron Nola, the reliable Philadelphia Phillies starter who had his patented knuckle-curve working in Houston. He tossed five innings, allowing just four hits while striking out five over 69 pitches. 

The game started to get away from Mexico, too, in the top of the fifth inning, when nine-hitter Dante Nori dropped a perfect sacrifice bunt that scored Pasquantino’s Royals teammate, Jac Caglianone, to make it a 3-0 game. Then, Miami Marlins outfielder Jakob Marsee came in clutch with a two-out, bases-loaded single that scored two runners before he was picked off at first base to end the inning. 

With a 7-0 lead, Mexico, facing desperation, saw some offensive life in the bottom of the seventh with bases loaded and no outs. But after Alek Thomas’ groundout to first, and Rowdy Tellez hitting a liner right at Pasquantino for the second out, Jarren Duran struck out as they were only able to get one run out of a potentially game-changing situation. 

Vinnie Pasquantino of Italy runs the bases after hitting a home run in the sixth inning against Mexico during the 2026 World Baseball Classic between Italy and Mexico at Daikin Park on March 11, 2026 in Houston, Texas. (Kenneth Richmond/Getty Images)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Pasquantino’s third home run flipped momentum right back to Team Italy, and they rode it into the final frame where they sealed victory. 

As Italy soars into the quarterfinals, Mexico is eliminated as their players will head back to their respective big league camps to finish out spring training.

Team USA’s quarterfinal matchup will be against Team Canada, the winners of Pool A, at 8 p.m. ET in Daikin Park on March 13. 

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.