Manchester City's hike for the third trophy
In a third of his year at the helm of Chelsea, Thomas Tuchel has lost just five matches. However, the most recent failures, fitting into the May calendar, almost cost the West London team a whole season of effort. At first, the Blues were minimally inferior to Leicester in the FA Cup final and for the second year in a row were left without a trophy, frozen in a step from climbing the top step of the podium. And then there was an unexpected embarrassment in Birmingham (1: 2), which almost deprived the grandee of a place in the 2021/22 Champions League. Only a lucky coincidence in parallel meetings allowed Chelsea to forget about the slap in the face from Aston Villa and prepare for the main game of the year without disappointment from the work done. After all, the Londoners remained in the international football elite, having immediately entered the group stage. Now on the agenda is winning the cup, which Tuchel missed last summer.
Manchester City, on the other hand, enjoyed every day of spring.
Indeed, after the fourth consecutive victory in the League Cup, Pep Guardiola's team returned the title of the strongest in the country.
Three rounds before the finish of the championship, the townspeople became mathematically unattainable for their rivals and eventually finished 12 points behind their nearest competitor.
If the Mancunians were a little more successful in the FA Cup, they would have the opportunity to collect all the possible trophies of the season.
However, the defeat to Chelsea in the semifinals of the tournament adds spice to the next meeting of the teams.
In addition to this setback, City also lost to an opponent a few weeks ago at Etihad.
This means that for the first time since 2009, Londoners can defeat a competitor three times in a row.
Crossing rivals in the finals
In the big finals, the paths of the opponents crossed twice.
In the 2018/19 season, City players won the League Cup on penalties (4: 3) after a goalless match at Wembley.
Whereas in the debut of the Full Members' Cup (a tournament that existed in England from 1986 to 1992), the blues were already stronger - 5: 4, largely thanks to the hat-trick of David Speedy.
By the way, Londoners are rarely inferior in decisive matches.
On the international arena, out of six such battles, they stumbled only on a rainy summer evening in 2008 in Moscow, when John Terry's kick in the penalty spot made Manchester United players the owners of the Champions League.
"Manchester City", although it instills fear in compatriots with dominant performances in domestic tournaments, never shone in European competitions.
And therefore the match at the Portuguese Dragau will renew their best achievement - the Champions League semi-final was the same.
In case of Saturday's success, City will become the 23rd club to receive the status of the strongest on the continent.
Chelsea's incredible makeover
It is difficult to formulate a message who is the true favorite in a pair.
For Manchester, the incredible stability of performances in the current Champions League speaks: out of a dozen matches they brought to success 11. And in half of them Guardiola's players were different even before the 20th minute came.
Although the status of the laggards did not frighten them: of the seven meetings in which City conceded first, only one remained with the rivals.
True, the Mancunians should remember: since 2015, the main continental trophy in Europe goes to the club that opens the score.
How do you do it against Tuchel's Chelsea?
Good question.
After all, the German, who led the team at the end of January, first of all took up the defense.
He switched to a scheme with three defenders, rehabilitated and brought Antonio Rudiger to top condition, taught Rhys James and Cesar Azpilicueta to help partners in the position of the extreme center, which had a miraculous effect.
In the Champions League, Chelsea never conceded more goals per game, and in England they had the second - after City - indicator of the reliability of the defense.
Nevertheless, this does not guarantee success for the Londoners: Guardiola's team has the best attack in the Premier League (83 goals).
Plus, Saturday's match is likely to be missed by the main goalkeeper of the blue, Edouard Mendy.
He returned to training only on Wednesday, barely recovering from an injury, and it is not a fact that he will have time to gain optimal condition.
For Londoners, this is a blow, because in the Champions League the Senegalese spent eight matches to zero, which is a record for English clubs.
Exciting duel on the coach's bridge
A separate aspect of the finals is the coaching confrontation. After all, Tuchel and Guardiola have fought an uncompromising struggle since the time of their intersections in the German championship. Pep was in charge of Bayern, while Thomas tried to oppose the record-master with Mainz and Borussia Dortmund. In the middle of the last decade, their "battles" more often remained with the Spaniard - three wins and two draws. Although 0: 0 in the National Cup in 2016 is also reasonable to equate to a triumph, because in the penalty shootout Munich were still stronger. But in England Tuchel took revenge in full, knocking out "two out of two" against Guardiola.
The specialists are approaching the Champions League final as the seventh and eighth mentors who made their way to the main rally match with different teams.
And if Guardiola has a little forgotten what it is like to play in the final, then Tuchel is probably still disappointed: a year ago his PSG lost the least to Bayern Munich.
Thomas was dismissed a couple of months later.
Thomas Tuchel's Record in the Big Games So far:
Chelsea 1-0 Tottenham
Chelsea 3-0 Atletico Madrid
Chelsea 0-0 Man United
Chelsea 1-0 Liverpool
Chelsea 2-1 Porto
Chelsea 1-0 Man City
Chelsea 3-1 Real Madrid
Chelsea 2-1 Man City
Goals Scored: 13 & Goals Conceded: 3 pic.twitter.com/gd0386uO6W
- Nouman (@nomifooty) May 8, 2021
However, Chelsea was not at all embarrassed by this fact.
On the contrary, they saw it as a good sign, because in March 2012 Londoners believed in Roberto di Matteo in a similar way.
Having invited a specialist at the height of the season to the position of the dismissed Andre Villas-Boas, the bosses set him the task of performing as best as possible in the spring.
To which the Italian responded with a victory in the FA Cup, and then a triumph in the Champions League.
Now Tuchel is ready to repeat history, at the same time becoming the first coach during the existence of the Champions League, who reached the final with two different teams in two seasons in a row.
An unexpected problem
Despite the abundance of stars in the rosters, the teams cannot boast of a rich baggage of their players' performances in decisive top-level matches. For example, only Thiago Silva, who captained a year ago at PSG, played for Chelsea in the Champions League final. Mateo Kovacic also supported Real Madrid twice from the bench, when the Spaniards took the trophy in 2017 and 2018, but Zinedine Zidane never threw the Croat into battle. As a result, there is a high likelihood that the pressure of expectations will overwhelm young footballers who are clearly lacking in experience.
Moreover, already during the season, every now and then some of them wilted under pressure, not realizing even half of their capabilities. For example, Timo Werner: the most productive player in the Chelsea squad, not only is he leading the team in missed scoring chances, he also has 15 unaccounted goals. Whereas during the season the German scored legitimately only 12 times.
At City, only Ilkay Gundogan can tell his partners what the Champions League final is. The veteran, whose precise shots brought the British victory in six of seven games in the international 20/21 season, stormed the summit with Borussia in 2013. However, then Dortmund lost to Bayern. Now, however, the midfielder is aiming for success, although he knows for sure that rookie clubs rarely win the final on the first run. Of the last 10 cases of this kind, the debutant took the upper hand only once. And if this debutant turned out to be a team from England, then the statistics did not spare it at all. Since 1982, when Aston Villa took the trophy right off the bat, representatives of Division 1 or the Premier League have not known such success.
Here, the “townspeople” would believe in the magic of Pep, who lost only one out of 15 career finals - Jose Mourinho and his “Real” in 2011 stood in the way of the Catalan's “Barcelona”.
But here's the trouble: it is against Chelsea that Guardiola plays the worst in his career.
Seven defeats were inflicted on the specialist only by the team from West London, and this is already a kind of complex.
Important pupils
The third-ever English-only Champions League final will be painted in light and dark blue colors. And the tone of the match will also be set by homebrew players. Phil Foden has shown tremendous progress at Manchester over the past season. Changing the running system, adopting a special diet, improving the quality of the blow (minimum preparation time, strength, high technical skill), he turned into Pep's universal weapon. Thanks to this, the pupil of the academy of townspeople not only brilliantly replaced Kevin de Bruyne while he was being treated, but also put an end to the nostalgic sighs for David Silva's playing for City. By his multitasking - in one of the fights Phil was used by the coach alternately in six positions - the midfielder makes the attacking system of City as diverse as possible.And so Guardiola sees him as a key performer for the team for the next 15 years.
On the other hand, Mason Mount blossomed just as brightly.
Back in "Derby" with Frank Lampard, he began to act like a real star, although he had just moved to a real adult level.
Next, the tandem fruitfully collaborated at Chelsea, where the midfielder was a favorite with the coach.
With the arrival of Tuchel, the Englishman lost his place in the squad.
But then, with his incredible efficiency, he earned the respect of a German specialist.
🤩 Mason Mount for Chelsea this season:
🥇 Key Passes (101)
🥇 Big chances created (14)
🥇 Tackles (104)
🥇 Accurate Crosses (75)
🥇 WS Rating (7.24)
🥈 Times Fouled (54)
🥈 Assists (7)
🥉 Goals (9)
🥉 Interceptions (41)
🥉 Dribbles (65)
👑 Chelsea's player of the year pic.twitter.com/oEVLZ8UdDx
- WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) May 18, 2021
The mount is stable, efficient and reliable.
He subtly feels the free space, which is why he wedges himself in an exemplary way between the opponent's lines of defense and explodes their compactness.
Mason scans the field like a robot and delivers the sharpest gears.
True, after them, the partners do not always score, which spoils the statistics of the young man.
Just look at the midfielder's expected assists rating: with 9.57 real assists, Mount has only five.
And this is very unfair.
Understanding this fact, Chelsea fans appreciated the player's efforts and named him the club's best footballer of the season.
Stealthy heroes
In addition to all the obvious confrontations of the match, one more duel should be highlighted - stylistically defining players for the teams.
At City this is Ruben Dias, the defender who has played 5366 minutes this season.
This is the maximum among all the participants in the top 5 European championships, if we take into account the performances for both the club and the national team.
Joining the townspeople in the summer, the Portuguese gradually established himself in the base and formed a bond with John Stones, which was able to stop even the most skilled forwards of the continent.
Suffice it to say that for the entire season of the Champions League, the Mankunians conceded only four goals.
At the same time, the athlete famously supports the attack: in the Champions League he gave 773 assists, which is second only to Toni Kroos's performance.
The effect of the arrival of Dias was so positive and obvious that the Association of Football Journalists of England recognized the Portuguese as the best player of the season in the Premier League.
Defenders have not received such an honor since 1989, while from the Portuguese only Cristiano Ronaldo previously received such an award.
For Chelsea, N'golo Kante is just as backbone.
He is one of the five Premier League players who most often return the ball to their team using tackles and interceptions.
This is anomalous as Londoners usually retain 62% possession in a match, making it difficult to recruit defensive TTDs.
In addition, the Frenchman missed part of the season due to health problems, but still took a step forward: he pumped the first pass and became even more perfect in the selection. Today, Kante is capable of playing any position in the center of the field, withstanding 90 minutes or more at a super-intense pace. In addition, he launches very well, and then maintains the pressure, turning into the real "heart" of the London club. On Saturday, they are ready to work at full pulse for Chelsea to celebrate their success. And because, whether it will withstand, the result of the fight largely depends.