Led by Spain coach Pep Guardiola, Manchester City reached the Champions League final for the first time in their history. And now the squad are looking forward to the culmination of their successful season by winning the Champions League, the title the team craves the most.
Manchester City meet Chelsea tonight in a final characterized by pure English flavor, at the “Dragao” stadium in Porto, Portugal.
Guardiola considers his career successful with Manchester City so far, as he has led the team to the league title 3 times in the last four seasons and helped make Manchester City one of the most successful European clubs. most important.
Despite this, the missing piece in Manchester’s plaque of success, “Guardiola”, is the European Champions League title.
“Sometimes clubs have to play more final matches to win the first title. There are other clubs that need once. We hope that will be the case for us,” said Guardiola .
“I have a lot of confidence in my team. You can’t imagine how much I trust my team and what we can offer,” he said.
For Guardiola, tomorrow’s game represents a chance to win his first Champions League title since winning the tournament with Barcelona for the second time in 2011.
Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva said: “Guardiola is our card. He has won the competition title several times as a player and coach … Guardiola knows the way to win the Champions League. We are one step away from achieving our goal. “
On the other hand, Chelsea will play in the final for the first time since 2012, having already crowned their only title of the tournament by beating Bayern Munich at their home at the “Allianz Arena”.
German coach Thomas Tuchel has become the first coach to make the Champions League final in two consecutive seasons with two different teams.
Tochel led his former club, Paris Saint-Germain, to last season’s final but fell in the final against Bayern Munich.
Tuchel took over as Chelsea coach last January, and he left a quick impact on the team’s performance and results, and played a leading role in leading him to the Champions League final this season.
Chelsea midfielder Matteo Kovacic said: “From his first moment with the team, the players felt connected with him, he did a good job, and we had a great season at the end because we have reached the Champions League final, reached the FA Cup. final, and we ended the season in the top four places in the English Premier League. “”.
“For that, it’s a good season, but it’s not complete because you have to win a title,” he added.
Chelsea have beaten Manchester City twice this season, including beating them in the FA Cup semi-finals, robbing them of the dream of making a quartet. But Tuchel realizes that the Champions League final is another matter.
“Playing against the teams Guardiola coaches is always difficult. We try to close the gap, and the good thing in football is that the gap can be closed in 90 minutes,” Tuchel said.
He explained: “It’s entirely possible, and that’s what we’re looking for in the final.”
As was the case last year, this time the Champions League final was also affected by the Corona pandemic, and the final match was moved from Istanbul to Porto due to restrictions on trip imposed in light of the Corona crisis.
Turkey has been added to Britain’s “red list” for travel due to the high number of new cases of the “Corona” virus, which means returnees from any country on the Red List must be quarantined in a hotel for a period of 10 days from the date of their return to Britain.
Despite this, the last match of this season will see the presence of 16,500 supporters in the stadium.
This is the second season in a row in which the last game has been moved from Istanbul for the inability to host the game in light of the pandemic, and Portuguese stadiums have replaced Istanbul during of the two seasons.
The Portuguese capital, Lisbon, hosted the final stages of the tournament in the form of a combined championship, but the final between Bayern and Saint Germain did not witness the presence of supporters.