Chelsea captain Reece James remains optimistic despite a crushing 5-2 first-leg defeat to Paris St Germain, insisting the club’s Champions League history offers hope for a dramatic comeback at Stamford Bridge next week.

The Blues face a monumental challenge in the last-16 tie after a late collapse at the Parc des Princes saw them concede three goals in the final 16 minutes.

Prior to this late surge from the European champions, Chelsea had shown resilience, twice levelling the score.

Malo Gusto initially cancelled out Bradley Barcola’s opener, and Enzo Fernandez later found the top corner after Ousmane Dembele had put PSG ahead again.

However, a dreadful error from goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen in the 74th minute gifted Vitinha a crucial goal, unleashing PSG.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia then struck twice in the closing stages, leaving Chelsea with a significant deficit to overcome.

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“It was fairly even after 75 minutes and then the final quarter of an hour ran away from us,” said James. “We didn’t finish the way we wanted to and that’s disappointing.

“This is the Champions League and anything can happen. This is the greatest competition in club football and many teams over the years have turned ties around, from bigger deficits than this one facing us.”

PSG were themselves victims of one of the competition’s greatest comebacks in 2017 when they conceded to Barcelona three times after the 87th minute in a last-16 second leg meeting to lose 6-5 on aggregate.

The Ligue 1 side had held a 4-0 lead going into the game at the Nou Camp.

There was also a famous second-leg fightback by Liverpool who recovered from losing 3-0 to Barca to progress to the final en route to winning the competition in 2019.

“We need to put this one behind us and look forward now,” said James. “We need to react. The game didn’t go our way here but it’s only half-time.

“There’s lots to learn from this game. We know we’ve made it super difficult for ourselves for the second leg but the game is not done, far from it.”

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What had looked like being a good night for Chelsea ended in misery following the error by Jorgensen, who had only recently displaced Robert Sanchez in the team.

The goalkeeper was verbally berated by Fernandez for another error towards the end, while there was the unsavoury sight of Pedro Neto pushing a ball boy to the ground, an action for which he later apologised and gave the boy his shirt.

Kvaratskhelia, who had been a second-half substitute, then showed why this team are European champions with a wonderful curling drive before tapping in in stoppage time to complete the visitors’ ordeal.

“This is a Champions League tie, the best competition at club level, over two legs and we need to reset and go again,” said James.

“I’ll say it again to everyone but especially the Chelsea fans. The game is not finished, it’s only half-time. We will give our all in the second leg.”