Manchester City meet English rivals, Chelsea in the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League Final at Estadio do Dragao, Porto, Portugal.
Man City enter this Final looking for their first Champions League title, which would be their second overall European honour after winning 1969-70 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.
Chelsea meanwhile will be looking to clinch their second title in UEFA’s premier competition and seventh overall in all UEFA competitions.
Team News
Manchester City have no fresh injury concerns to report with a full squad in contention, as Sergio Aguero looks set to make his last-ever appearance for the Premier League champions.
Chelsea could be without Edouard Mendy after the Senegalese goalkeeper suffered a rib injury in last Sunday’s Premier League defeat at Aston Villa.
N’Golo Kante (hamstring) is also a doubt but Cesar Azpilicueta will be eligible to feature because his suspension only applies to domestic competitions.
Stat Attack
- Man City lost both of their two previous meetings against Chelsea in European competitions by 1-0 results, losing 2-0 on aggregate in semi-finals of 1970-71 UEFA European Cup Winners Cup.
- Chelsea have kept just two clean sheets in their last five meetings against Man City in all competitions on neutral territory (W1, D1, L3).
- Hakim Ziyech has scored in each of Chelsea’s last two meetings against Man City, with Thomas Tuchel’s winning on both occasions (W2).
- City kept clean sheets in their two Champions League matches this season to be held at neutral venues, defeating Borussia Monchengladbach 2-0 in both legs of Last 16 tie to win 4-0 on aggregate.
- Chelsea have won two of three Champions League matches on neutral soil this season (W2, L1).
- Riyad Mahrez is the only City player to have scored twice in a Champions League game this season, netting a brace in second leg of their semi-final to defeat PSG 4-1 on aggregate.
- Ten of Chelsea’s 22 Champions League goals this season have come from between Olivier Giroud (6) and Timo Werner (4).
- Pep Guardiola has won each of his two previous appearances as a manager in the Champions League Final, guiding Barcelona to title in in 2009 & 11 against English opposition in Manchester United.
- Thomas Tuchel is yet to win an UEFA competition as manager, although he did guide PSG to runners-up in last season’s competition.
Prediction
Man City will be relieved to enter this match off the back of a ruthless victory against Everton last Sunday in which they were just pure brilliant across the pitch on and off the ball, although they must ignore their two recent defeats against Chelsea which is bound to pry on their minds psychologically.
Chelsea meanwhile were pretty poor in their defeat to Aston Villa because they just lacked any real end product throughout, on top of awful defending for Bertrand Traore’s strike from a corner without any attempts to man-mark or tighten up and if they repeat that effort here then they can forget the trophy.
In fact, Thomas Tuchel’s Blues are extremely lucky that Tottenham did them a favour over in Leicester last weekend, otherwise they would of been coming here desperate for a win to guarantee Champions League football next season.
Tactics though will likely come into play given that this is their third meeting in just over 40 days and although Chelsea won both meetings, I realistically can’t put any bets on them winning this after their display at Villa whereas City look like a team ready to take that final step and complete a treble.
Prediction: Manchester City 2-1 Chelsea
Result: Manchester City 0-1 Chelsea
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