…Everything You Need To Know
BEVERLY HILLS, May 29, (THEWILL) – The biggest day in European football has come. Two English Premier League sides will contend for the most coveted prize in continental football, the UEFA Champions League trophy, for the second time in three years as EPL champions Manchester City face Chelsea in the 66th European Cup final.
It is the debut final for the men from the Etihad and they are up against a side who are three-time finalists, who won the 2012 showpiece and who are looking forward to repeating that feat nine years after.
The kick off time is 8pm local time at the Estadio do Dragao, home of the Portuguese side FC Porto. Coincidentally, it was the venue of the 2019 UEFA Nations League decider and was built for UEFA EURO 2004, showing evidence of its long association with big events. This time around, extenuating circumstances brought the 2020/2021 UCL final to its grounds.
This is because the final was originally intended to take place in Turkey, at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul but for recent COVID-19 restrictions that came into force and forced UEFA to seek alternative venues on May 13. One consideration that made Porto viable was that with respect to pandemic guidelines, the stadium will allow for in-person spectators with up to 16,500 spectators, about 33% capacity of grounds to be used.
The Porto stadium has not exactly been a proper hunting field for the new champions of the EPL where, of the two matches City have played there, they have won one and drawn the other. However, this time around, Pep Guardiola will not be facing the home side but a challenging nemesis who ended his side’s hope for an unprecedented quadruple and conquered him again in the EPL for a 2-0 lead in head-to-head meetings this season.
Whatever those antecedents point to, the meeting between City and Chelsea this time is at a final of the competition where Guardiola has devoted his full resources to winning. And, it has shown in the results. City have had the bit between their teeth in Europe this season and have left their opponents in the dust
To the prowess of their attacking brilliance, they have added greater defensive solidity as the Football Writers’ Association Best Footballer of the Season awardee, Ruben Dias, has helped Guardiola plug the cracks in their backline. This has seen them let in with only four goals in the 12 games played so far and carried them past their quarter-final jinx and over the Paris Saint-Germain hurdle to the final.
It is no surprise that City finished the season in Europe with the competition’s best defensive record, with just one goal shipped since Dias arrived and combined effectively with a revitalised John Stones in central defence to form an impregnable wall in front of Ederson Moraes, in goal.
The backline has dovetailed perfectly with Guardiola’s tactics of using a false-nine system this season. The ploy has worked to great effect, allowing Riyad Mahrez, Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne and even Ilkay Gündoğan to all take turns as the spearhead of City’s attack as the case deems it fit and according to the selection of the opposing team.
The formation helped the Cityzens suffocate opponents as it enables City to press relentlessly and couple it with clockwork passing while exploiting open spaces behind the line of opposing midfields. It has yielded results and, though, Guardiola may not necessarily change the format, he must have given considerable thoughts to how Chelsea manager, Thomas Tuchel, was able to overturn this style with counterattacks of their own.
The Spaniard admitted that he will like to change very little as it might be counterproductive when he said: “We are used to playing a certain way. We cannot do it differently.”
The implication is that the Belgian Kevin De Bruyne is likely to be deployed again as City’s creator-in-chief and will engage the elegance, vision and immaculate passing range that are characteristic of his game, mixed with his delicately-timed driving runs and spectacular finishing to effective use again. The versatile playmaker has the potential to single-handedly make Guardiola the sixth coach to win the European Cup with two different clubs.
Yet, it is not going to be if Chelsea have their way. The team that has become ruthlessly more efficient in winning but too tough to beat can upset City for the third time this season. Chelsea’s defensive thriftiness has seen them lose only five times since Tuchel implemented his defensive overhaul. It means the final will be a compact showcase of defensive steeliness.
What will be the determining factor for the Blues will come from the frontline, the attacking third of the squad. They have shown progress as Tuchel’s input begins to register as they showed for the two times they clashed against the men from the Etihad. And, there is the precedence to consider for those who count on such minutiae because the last time Chelsea won the UCL, it was with a manager who came in midseason and helped the team to the 2012 trophy.
Fortunately, Chelsea’s record-breaking goalkeeper Edouard Mendy will start in goal to provide uncompromising assurance at the back while N’Golo Kanté will demonstrate his energetic and highly productive influence to maintain their tough-as-nails, hard to break down stance in the final while piping City on the counter, as has worked brilliantly for them so far. It worked against the Madrid duo of La Liga: Atletico and Real.
The referee for the day will be Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz, a 44-year-old Spaniard who is among the officials for UEFA EURO 2020 this summer. He will be assisted by the video assistant referee (VAR) system and five substitutions will are allowed. A sixth will be permitted for each side if the final goes to extra time.
There will be an opening ceremony where Marshmello, an American electronic music producer and DJ, will perform a unique set ahead of kickoff. The platinum-certified artist/producer is known for smash hits like “Happier” and “Silence and Friends” and is expected to deliver an epic virtual performance to get the mood set for the football showpiece.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
