The defeat of the very favorite Manchester City in the Champions League final against Chelsea (0-1 goal by Havertz) definitively downsizes the presumptuous Pep Guardiola, one who believes himself to be so good that he can do without deck while having on the bench Aguero e Gabriel Jesus. In addition, the event, not at all fortuitous but certainly particular, allows you to make a speech on the coaches. In December, the phenomenal executives of the Paris Saint Germain exonerated Tuchel that, the previous season he had won everything and lost only the final of Champions League against the Bayern to catch one of the most fantastic losers in the history of modern football, Mauricio Pochettino who, in fact, has succeeded in an almost impossible undertaking: to make Lille win the championship.
Meanwhile with a team that counts Mbappé e Neymar he won the French Cup and the Super Cup, or nothing. This may be why Florentino Perez wants him at Real Madrid and Tottenham, which Pochettino had left in the relegation zone to Mourinho, is thinking of calling him back.
Tuchel who got his hands on his first Champions League last night had arrived in London with Chelsea seventh, where another alleged coach had slipped him, Lampard, the Pirlo d’Oltremanica. Having got rid of the former player in time, Abramovic found himself in the FA Cup final, lost to Leicester, in third place in the league and, for the second time, with the second most important trophy in Europe on the showcase.
In all of this Guardiola misses the possibility of his third Champions (a successful undertaking, in modern times, for Ancelotti and Zidane), despite leading one of the richest and strongest teams in the world (the other is PSG). After Barcelona (ten years ago the last triumph) went everywhere to revive the sumptuous Catalans, but in Europe it has no longer reached anything. Easy to win when they train Messi, Xavi e Iniesta, more difficult when the tiki taka – the invention of a hypnotic and monotonous kick – is transferred elsewhere.
Tuchel is not the new king, but he is German like the last three to have won the Champions League (the other or two are Klopp and Flick) demonstrating that in recent years they have made the most consistent progress and that their school, at the moment, has supplanted the Latin one.
Chelsea won deservedly, despite being less strong than City, was not at all favored and, despite having a striker (Werner), which makes you play with practically one less (Werner himself).
It should be emphasized that, contrary to what happens almost everywhere, Chelsea play a 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-3 destined to thicken the defensive line (always five), he has an exceptional midfielder like Kanté because he is very good in recovering the ball and agile in the restart. The maneuver is easy and the technical figure high, yesterday even higher than that of the City. The goal, located in the 42nd minute of the first half, a vertical attack on Havertz’s goal on a reach by Mount and providential (even if it is not known how much wanted) movement to the left by Werner. Following his cut, the City defense left Havertz one-on-one with Zinchenko (which does not know how to mark). On the goalkeeper’s exit, the rebound favored the German who bagged into an empty net.
Guardiola has lost De Bruyne at 57 ‘(terrible collision with Rudiger, yellow card), but Tuchel he had had to give up, for a muscular problem, a Thiago Silva at 37 ‘(excellently replaced by Christensen), so much so that I don’t feel like saying that the two injuries had an impact on the game. Actually out of De Bruyne, Guardiola finally put in a real striker (Gabriel Jesus) and later (76 ‘) Aguero for Sterling.
Occasions for the City maybe half, at the beginning of the game, on postponement Ederson and advance of James its Sterling. For the rest, a decent ball possession, few game changes, a predisposition to attack on the left, no quick and deep combination.
And most importantly, no reaction. You pass just after the drawback (it was a few minutes from the interval), but also at the beginning of the recovery and beyond nothing was recorded. Indeed, in a match stingy of play and play, therefore anything but beautiful, it was still Chelsea who had the ball for doubling (72 ‘) with a splendid action: Kantè’s ball recovery, service for Havertz who almost goes halfway and then unloads on Pulisic (from 65 ‘in place of Werner) who, diagonally, passes the goalkeeper, but puts out.
City have pressed for the last twenty minutes, but aside from a save by Azpilicueta and a couple of scrums produced only some bellicose intentions. The only real danger, Chelsea ran it in the third of seven minutes of injury time with a round shot of Mahrez out of a palm from the intersection.
Tuchel beats Guardiola for the third time this season. He goes up, the other goes down.
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