Chelsea Beat Manchester City to Win Champions League for Second Time

- Kai Havertz scored the only goal of the game as Chelsea claimed their first Champions League title since 2012

- Tuchel had a tactical masterclass against Pep Guardiola, who went without a striker in his starting XI

- City are still in search for a Champions League trophy which has continued to elude them

- Chelsea overall were the better side in the final, with Werner missing two good chances

- For City, they were dealt a blow early on when De Bruyne was forced to come off through injury

Chelsea beat Manchester City 1-0 to win their second-ever Champions League title in an all-English final in Porto on Saturday, May 29.

Kai Havertz scored the only goal of the final in the first half as Thomas Tuchel made amends for his Champions League final loss last season against PSG.

City boss Pep Guardiola will only have himself to blame, after starting a questionable XI that did not feature any recognized striker or a defensive midfielder.

After the two sides cancelled each other out in the first half, Chelsea eventually broke the deadlock three minutes to the break thanks to Havertz, who has improved tremendously under Tuchel despite a slow start to life as a Chelsea player.

The German international benefited from a brilliant defence-splitting pass from Mason Mount and managed to round city goalkeeper Ederson before slotting home the opener, sending some 16000 fans at the Estadio do Dragao into delirium.

Overall, Chelsea had the better opportunities, with Guardiola having to quickly change tactics after losing midfield maestro Kevin De Bruyne midway through the second half to another injury.

How Tuchel masterminded a 3rd straight win over Guardiola

Chelsea went into the Champions League final with slightly less pressure than their counterparts for several reasons.

Firstly, Tuchel had already outdone himself by getting to the final, having only taken over as Blues’s boss in January.

The London outfit were also tipped as underdogs on paper with City’s frightening squad in mind.

All factors aside, it has to be said that Tuchel has managed to transform Chelsea in impressive fashion in all areas of the pitch.

Tuchel reinstated Antonio Rudiger in defence and has done a great job in transforming the German’s fortunes at a time when his Chelsea career seemed to be over.

Another player whose importance cannot be ignored in Tuchel’s side is N’golo Kante, who has been integrated by Tuchel in a position where he is quite simply the master.

Kante put up another man-of-the-match performance in the Champions League final, consistently breaking up attacks and managing an impressive 85.3% passing accuracy at the same time.

The Frenchman controlled practically everything in midfield, winning more aerial balls than anyone despite his height and his breathtaking performance was deservedly capped with another piece of silverware to his collection.

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For all of City’s attacking threat, Chelsea looked more like the team with a solid plan as they did well even with the loss of Thiago Silva to injury early on.

There was also the slight issue of Pep Guardiola’s squad-tinkering, which thoroughly helped the Blues on the day.

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