Graeme Souness has pop at Diego Costa and BLASTS Chelsea's 'dirty tactics'

FORMER Liverpool icon Graeme Souness couldn't resist having a dig at Diego Costa and his Chelsea team-mates in the aftermath of their Champions League exit to Paris Saint-Germain.

The Blues saw their luck run out as PSG grabbed an equaliser in extra-time to secure a 2-2 draw and progress to the quarter-finals of the competition on the away goals rule.

Souness wasn't impressed with the way the Chelsea players ganged up on the referee in order to get Zlatan Ibrahimovic sent off.

"This PSG team is just full of technique, a really good footballing team and they had to put up with stuff which I find really, really unappealing," Souness told Sky Sports 5.

"The reaction of the Chelsea players on the challenge on Oscar epitomised what I'm saying.

"To a man they surrounded the referee, (Diego) Costa ran 50 yards to get involved.

Souness, Chelsea, CFC, Blues, CostaGETTY

Diego Costa squares up to Thiago Motta

That is something we can do without, that is not the British way of doing things

Graeme Souness

"That is something we can do without, that is not the British way of doing things, it's creeping into our game, which is, I find, totally unacceptable.

"When you played, the last thing you wanted to show was that you were injured. Today is the exact opposite of that, someone brushes you, you want to go down and try and get them in trouble. That's how pathetic it is.

"We saw a bit of that in the first half and thank goodness the PSG team stood up to that and they leave here with credit. They're a proper team."

And Souness reserved harsh criticism for Costa, adding: "Costa starts off a game with one intention - as much as I like him - 'I am going to intimidate the centre-halves, nudge them, elbow them, set about them physically and just get to the border without getting myself in trouble', hoping they react to that and come after him.

"He's cute and clever, gets himself up in the air for any challenge coming, they get a yellow card and those centre-halves can't come near him after that. That's how it's crept into our game."

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