Chelsea and Manchester City, two heavyweights from England, are all set to go head-to-head in the UEFA Champions League final to be staged in Portugal. Both teams have enjoyed a wonderful campaign in Europe’s premier cup competition and deservedly have booked a place in the final.
Let’s relive the journey of both Chelsea and Manchester City to the final of the wonderful competition.
CHELSEA FC
Chelsea were drawn in Group E along with Sevilla, FC Krasnodar and Stade Rennais. A thing to remember here is that Frank Lampard was the man-in-charge of Chelsea throughout the group stage and Thomas Tuchel took over post the Round of 16 stage. Frank helped Chelsea finish as the leaders of Group E with 14 points and set up a Round of 16 clash against Spanish side Atletico Madrid.
Thomas Tuchel led the Blues to a 3-0 on aggregate win over Atletico progressing to the quarter-finals stage. They were drawn against FC Porto in the quarter-finals and were the favourites to progress to the next round. Porto, however, did put up a valiant fight against Chelsea and made life difficult for the Blues. The second leg at Stamford Bridge is where they suffered their only defeat of the competition but it wasn’t enough to stop them from progressing to the next stage.
They met the competition’s most successful side, Real Madrid in the semi-finals and from the first minute of the match, Chelsea were the far superior side. They outran the Madrid team and created plenty of chances over the two legs. In the end, it was a comfortable 3-1 win on aggregate for the Blues to set up a date in the final of the Champions League.
Record: Win – 8 | Draw – 3 | Loss – 1 | Goals For – 22 | Goals Against – 4
Top Scorer: Olivier Giroud (6 goals)
MANCHESTER CITY
Manchester City were drawn in Group C of the Champions League along with FC Porto, Olympiacos and Marseille. It was a straightforward run in the group stage for the Cityzens as they cruised through as the leaders of the group winning five out of six matches with 16 points.
The Round of 16 match against the German side, Borussia Monchengladbach also seemed like a stroll in the park for the English side as they netted 4 past them and didn’t concede any over the two legs, setting up a match against another German team Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-finals.
This match felt like the coming-of-age encounter for Pep Guardiola’s City and Phil Foden in the Champions League. With identical scores of 2-1 in both legs, City progressed to the semi-finals with a 4-2 aggregate. They were drawn against French side PSG who were tipped at that stage as the favourites to win the tournament.
The two matches against PSG were an interesting watch. The scoreline of 4-1 would suggest that City were the dominant force in both the legs but it was far from that. In both the matches, PSG dominated the first half and should have scored more goals. In the second half of both the games, the French side committed some unacceptable errors and City made sure that they punished them. The victory in the second leg meant that Guardiola’s side became the first English team to win seven consecutive European Cup/UEFA Champions League matches. They also became the first club from England to win 11 games in the competition in a single campaign.
Record: Win – 11 | Draw – 1 | Loss – 0 | Goals For – 25 | Goals Against – 4
Top Scorer: Riyad Mahrez and Ferran Torres (4 goals each)
Read: Recalling the Greatest UEFA Champions League Finals Ever
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