Chelsea were ranged against a group managed by Pep Guardiola afterward, also, in the semi-final. Plus they had been dismissed and discounted then, as they were until they ran out to confront the might of Manchester City in the Estadio do Dragao on Saturday night.
They had been told that they didn’t have a prayer when they fulfilled Guardiola’s Barcelona side in the semi-final. They have been dismissed as’stingy, cowardly and miserable’ by the Spanish media.
Nine years ago, Chelsea beat the Barcelona of Guardiola and Lionel Messi in the last four and destroyed Bayern Munich’s dreams in their own arena in the final. If it comes to defiance, this is a club which composed the book and on Saturday night, as everyone ready to welcome City into the pantheon of European Cup champions, a brand new Chelsea, the Chelsea of Thomas Tuchel and Kante, thwarted them and Guardiola again.
If many were expecting this final to be a paean to Guardiola’s beautiful football, they had been incorrect. Guardiola got his selection seriously wrong and his team of all the talents appeared confused, disjointed and anonymous, square pegs in round holes. The picture of this game wasn’t of City’s attractiveness but of Kante tackling Kevin de Bruyne on the border of the Chelsea box and leaving him spread-eagled, face down on the turf. Chelsea completely deserved their 1-0 win. It may readily have been more powerful.
It was not just Kante who had the match of his life facing the 8000 or so Chelsea fans who’d made the journey to northern Portugal. Reece James was superb at right back. Kai Havertz, the match winner, who has often looked like a little boy lost since he came at Stamford Bridge to get a record #89m in the summer, came old. Antonio Rudiger made one of the best blocks you will ever see to deny Phil Foden. Mason Mount was brilliant. But that is regular now. Mount is brilliant weekly.
Chelsea celebrated long and lustily with their fans after the prize presentation and there was extra pleasure in the return of fans. There is, of course, 1 caveat: it had been just a couple of weeks back that Chelsea signed up to get a European Super League that could have destroyed this competition and much of English domestic football with it. It isn’t time to forget that just yet.
Chelsea finished a distant fourth to City in the Premier League this season, 19 points behind the champions and fighting until the last day even to make it back in the competition next season. Frank Lampard, among the greatest players, was sacked as director in January. They lost the FA Cup last to Leicester. Timo Werner is much better known for being offside than accomplishing goals. And yet through all this upheaval, they discovered a way to triumph.
Opposing fans like to taunt Chelsea with chants which’you ain’t got no history’ like the club were born when Roman Abramovich bought it in the summer of 2003 and changed the face of British football. That ignores the most watched FA Cup final win in history in 1970, a league title in 1955, the attractiveness of the drama of Alan Hudson, Ray Wilkins and Gianfranco Zola so much else besides.
The rush of decorations, though, has come from the last 18 decades and this success felt like it marked the dawn of a brand new generation assuming the mantle at Stamford Bridge. The group that won the Champions League at 2012 was handled by Roberto di Matteo but it had been the last boom of this side constructed by Jose Mourinho, the group of Lampard, John Terry and Didier Drogba.
This is a brand new Chelsea. This is a group which has won the largest club prize at the start of what was supposed to be a time of transition, even when it is harmonising new abilities such as James, Hakim Ziyech, Mount, Havertz and Werner. That they won the Champions League if they are in the beginning of this procedure and under the tutelage of a young manager like Tuchel is an ominous indication for their rivals. They did it with a rare spirit, too. ‘We fought for our lives for this instant,’ Ben Chilwell said following the match. And it revealed.
Many investigations of Tuchel’s personality are rife with contradictions. He is’hot’ but also’distant’. He’s’energising’ but his character may also be’exhausting’. He could be’popular’ in a club but he is also seen as’difficult’. He’s’a breath of fresh air’,’a football professor’ but he is thought to have left his last two jobs at Borussia Dortmund and PSG, who he took to the Champions League final last season, since the clubs’ supervisors grew weary of his personality.
He also out-thought the guy who is considered by many as the best trainer of all time. His Chelsea group has conquered Guardiola’s City three times in the previous six weeks. Perhaps Guardiola played into his hands with a selection that abandoned Foden and De Bruyne appearing confused and uncertain of their functions in City’s fluid system. It’s like the Champions League has become Guardiola’s Kryptonite. Tuchel raised Chelsea up. They were the better team by a space.
Thus Guardiola is still awaiting his third Champions League trophy, ten years later he lifted his next . And Tuchel is the new kid on the block.
This conflict was the first time City had played at a major European final for 51 years when they beat Poland’s Gornik Zabrze 2-1 in the 1970 Cup Winners’ Cup final but that didn’t stop them going into the game as strong favourites to win the third all-English closing of their last 13 years.
Guardiola sprung a major surprise before the game when he abandoned not just one but both of his holding midfielders, Fernandinho and Rodri, out of his starting line-up. Raheem Sterling, that has been unable to get into the first team, was recalled as was Ilkay Gundogan. It was a team that stated Guardiola was throwing caution to the wind, a team that stated he was expecting entirely to his assaulting principles.
Some shook their heads and thought back to the summer in Lisbon when Guardiola was accused of picking the incorrect team for City’s Champions League quarter final defeat to Lyon. Maybe that memory created Guardiola resolved to not make the same mistake two but it soon became evident that this decision was quixotic?
Sterling has appeared short of confidence in recent months, running into trouble, spurning opportunities. But he is such a brave player that he never adopts. He always wants the ball, he always tries to be direct and positive. It was almost inevitable then Sterling ought to be at the core of City’s most reckless ancient incursions.
Once City had pulled Chelsea around and probed them with their complex passing routines, a trademark bullet of a pushed overhaul from Ederson flew over the Chelsea defence and Sterling was on it in a flash. As he closed in on Edouard Mendy, James didn’t put him off and Mendy saved the backheel that was all he could muster.
A couple of minutes later, after Werner had missed a golden opportunity by miskicking in front of goal when Havertz pulled the ball back to him, Sterling hurried forward again and this time it required a slumping intervention by Ben Chilwell to take Sterling’s pass from Riyad Mahrez because he pulled his foot back to take.
The sport was already fizzing with purpose and energy. It was football played in a stunning technical degree. Chelsea began to threaten, also, and if Mount surged in the direction of the City box, he laid a pass invitingly into the path of Werner. Werner had space and time but he could only sidefoot his shot at Ederson.
Chelsea were counter-attacking brilliantly with Mount controlling the pace of their play. Chelsea came close again when Mount slid a pass wide to Chilwell and his deep cross found Kante thundering in at the back post. Kante fulfilled the ball cleanly but his header flew too high. City were being outplayed and out-thought.
The technical level of this soccer, from either side, was breathtaking. De Bruyne drilled at a pass to Foden because he ran into the region at full pelt, Foden controlled it flawlessly and steered his shot towards the corner of the goal only for Antonio Rudiger to earn a dazzling flying block that prevented the danger. It was a joy to observe.
Chelsea suffered a blow seven minutes before the period when Thiago Silva landed and appeared to injure his groin. He was not able to continue and looked distraught as he limped to the sideline, pulling his shirt over his head to try to hide his disappointment because he was consoled by teammates. He was replaced by Andreas
Chelsea shook the setback off quickly. Three minutes before half-time, they took the direct that their soccer had deserved. Mount divide the City defence with a sumptuous through ball and Havertz hurried to the yawning chasm between John Stones and Ruben Dias. Ederson rushed outside to meet him but Havertz took it around him, checked his stride and then slid the ball into the vacant net.
Rudiger and De Bruyne were involved in a nasty collision ten minutes after the break that left Rudiger using a yellow card and De Bruyne needing extended therapy. The Belgian looked as if his senses had been scrambled because he was helped from the pitch and that he was in tears as he was led down the tube. He had been substituted by Gabriel Jesus.
Foden started limping heavily, also. Everything suddenly seemed to be moving against them. Guardiola replaced Bernardo Silva, who was unidentified, with Fernandinho. It had been too late to rectify his own choice error.
City pressed desperately for an equaliser. Foden motivated and probed and played Mahrez in about the overlap but when he slipped the ball across goal, Cesar Azpilicueta got to it before Gundogan could tap it in and cleared it. Chelsea’s defence was increasingly heroic.
The more City pressed, the more Chelsea threatened to catch them on the break and when Havertz burst again with 20 minutes to go, he played the ball to replace Christian Pulisic who lifted his shot Ederson but saw it drift agonisingly wide of the far post.
Sergio Aguero, City’s top goalscorer of all time, who’s leaving the club this summer, was brought on for Sterling with 15 minutes to go to attempt to write one final astonishing chapter in his storied City livelihood and add to his 260 aims for the club. However, this time, the task was beyond even him.
