In the age of Premier and the tycoons, the coronavirus, Brexit and the new football, City and Chelsea dispute a Champions final Englishfollow the game live on AS.com) on Port, the second in three years after that between Liverpool and Tottenham at Wanda. The champion of the Premier against the fourth, the polished draft of Guardiola before the renewed of Abramovich. It is a great game wherever you look.
To get to this last season of the tournament, it has been necessary to go round and round. To begin with, the meeting was to be held today in Istanbul and not in Port. The pandemic prevented it, given the bad epidemiological situation in Turkey, and transferred the outcome to a country where everything is much better. The presence of Portugal on the green list of the British government will allow, in fact, that today there are 6,000 fans of each team in the stands. Many of them have already put the note of color in the squares and corners of the port city. The great bulk, in any case, will arrive and leave today, express trip on match day.
The final can be the first continental hit in the history of City and, at the same time, Guardiola's first outside of Barça. Getting it has had a Economic cost very high. Picture citizen spent more than 1.5 billion to be able to be here today. Guardiola received a blank check every year to sign, but it was not until this season that he really hit the mark on defense. Reinforcing Fill Days gives another dimension to back. Without a Messi to solve the problems but with a cast of very good players, it's almost more Pep's hand is necessary in this City than in that Barça that led to excellence. Therefore, a title with this team would also have more merit than with the one in which he enjoyed the blinding light of a genius, Messi.
They come those of Guardiola to leave in the gutter to PSG of Neymar and Mbappé, a considerable high that raised to Mahrez and Foden as luxury companions of De Bruyne. A title today, by the way, could bring the Belgian closer to the Ballon d'Or in a decisive way. The problem for Pep will take off the jacket of favorite and withstand the arreones to the counterattack of his rival. That is why he may opt for Fernandinho instead of Rodrigo in midfield.
Tsunami 'blue'
The Chelsea, meanwhile, play with the trick that comes with force from behind in the last sprint of the season. Nine years ago they won the Champions League in an impossible final against Bayern. Nothing remains of that set, and the template revolution had its definitive episode in the summer.
Abramovich took the checkbook out for a walk, invested 250 million-the majority in young people-, and gave another air to the team. Is spoken much of Qatari sheikh from PSG or the Emirati from City, but the Russian has spent 2.3 billion in ten years. Some of the glittering signings are not even indisputable: Ziyech, Havertz, Werner …
But to analyze this finalist Chelsea you have to dedicate a noteworthy space to the figure of Thomas Tuchel. The German was fired from PSG in winter, when the Parisian team still aspired to everything, and immediately went recruited for Chelsea who was clueless after the departure of Lampard, a legend on the field and a fiasco on the bench.
Tuchel revolutionized the system and the mood. Chelsea was another, one more physical and direct. He passed over the Atlético, Porto and Madrid. His appearance changed so much that it was reminiscent of the mutation suffered by Bayern last year when Flick took over the team. We already know how that story ended for the people of Munich, the same way that the Londoners now want to achieve. All this seasoned with the figure of Mateu Lahoz on the field, the most English of the Spanish referees. It could not be another. The Premier shows muscle and Europe is already waiting for a new champion. OR Guardiola or Tuchel.