Manchester City vs Chelsea: Champions League Final Team News & Possible Line Ups
The all-awaited final is here and it will be Manchester City vs Chelsea at Porto by 8 pm today. Below is everything you need to know about this biggest game of the season.
Manchester City vs Chelsea Team News
Chelsea: 25 players have traveled to Porto, including Edouard Mendy and N’Golo Kante. The duo should be fit despite injury concerns in previous days.
Man City: The only injury worry is Ilkay Gundogan who left City’s training session prematurely on Friday. He missed the last Premier League game because of a knee concern.
Manchester City vs Chelsea Stats
- The clubs’ only previous meetings came in the 1970-71 Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final – Chelsea won both legs 1-0 and won the trophy by beating Real Madrid in the final.
- This is the third year running a team will play in the European Cup/Champions League final for the first time (Tottenham in 2019, PSG in 2020, Manchester City in 2021).
- Only one of the last 10 teams competing in their first final have won, with Borussia Dortmund winning 3-1 against Juventus in 1997.
- Both Chelsea and Manchester City have conceded just four goals in this season’s UEFA Champions League.
- Thomas Tuchel is the first manager to reach the Champions League final in consecutive seasons with different clubs.
Possible Line-Ups
Predicted Chelsea XI: Mendy, Azpilicueta, Silva, Rudiger, James, Kante, Jorginho, Chilwell, Mount, Havertz, Werner.
Managers’ Quotes
Thomas Tuchel (via Sky Sports): “It’s always tough to play against City, Bayern, or Barcelona when Pep is on the sideline. He creates huge belief and success and has a huge winning mentality.
“We have had two experiences in two different competitions against City. Two different matches with two different line-ups. We have the experience of how brave and courageous we need to play in certain areas of the game.
“Maybe in the moment, City are the strongest team in Europe, in the world, and they have built a huge gap between us in the league but we closed the gap for 90 minutes at Wembley and closed the gap again in Manchester.”
Pep Guardiola (via mancity.com}: “I’m pretty sure we have to suffer to win the final. It’s nice to say enjoy it but sometimes it’s not possible. You have to be resilient and adjust.
“I know exactly the way we want to play, with whom we are going to play and I am not going to bother them much.
“It is an incredible privilege to be here. I never expected at the start of my career to play one final of the Champions League. Now we are here. We are lucky.”
