Paris Saint-Germain hold the narrowest of advantages over Chelsea in their Champions League Round of 16 contest.

The French giants won 2-1 at Parc des Princes in the first leg of the initial knockout phase of Europe's premier club competition on Tuesday night thanks to goals from star strikers Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani.

Laurent Blanc's men started brightly and were well on top in the early stages before the Blues responded by creating some quality chances through the midway stages of the first half, namely Diego Costa's header which was turned onto the crossbar by Kevin Trapp.

Ibrahimovic had a great gilt-edged chance in the 34th minute but got his back-post header all wrong, putting into the turf too close to himself and seeing it bounce well wide of the mark.

However, PSG took the lead in the 39th minute when Ibrahimovic hit a low free-kick from range which took a massive deflection off John Obi Mikel and completely wrong-footed Thibaut Courtois.

Guus Hiddink's men managed to equalise on the stroke of half-time though when Mikel atoned for his misfortune by scoring the sixth goal of his lengthy Chelsea career.

Willian sent in a corner from the right which was flicked on by Costa, falling nicely for Nigerian midfielder Mikel, who controlled with his thigh before fiercely half-volleying beyond Trapp from seven yards.

In the early stages of the second half, Chelsea looked right up for it with some creative attacking play but Costa struck his one-on-one effort into the legs of Trapp.

Soon enough, PSG had the visitors under siege, hemming them back in their own defensive third.

Courtois was called on to make a few top quality saves in keeping out Ibrahimovic, Di Maria and Lucas before Branislav Ivanovic threw himself in front of Blaise Matuidi's half-volley to keep PSG at bay.

Blanc replaced Lucas Moura with Cavani and it paid immediate dividends with the Uruguayan coming up with the winning goal in the 78th minute.

Angel Di Maria played a lovely ball over the top which Cavani raced onto, allowed it to bounce once before hitting a superb volley between the legs of Courtois from a tight angle.

The Ligue 1 champions will now travel to Stamford Bridge on March 9 with a slender one-goal lead but Chelsea will take heart knowing they have an away goal up their sleeve.

2015/16 UEFA Champions League - Round of 16 first leg

Paris Saint-Germain (FRA): 2 (Zlatan Ibrahimovic 39', Edinson Cavani 78')
Chelsea (ENG): 1 (John Obi Mikel 45+1')
Parc des Princes, Paris, France - 46,505