The 66th UEFA Champions League will culminate with an all-English clash featuring the 2012 UCL champions Chelsea and Manchester City, who will make their UCL finals debut on Saturday, May 29. Will Chelsea become the 13th team to hoist the UCL trophy more than once, or will City finally end their year-long hunt for the prestigious title?
Manchester City vs Chelsea
When: Saturday, May 29 – 20:00 WEST
Where: Estádio do Dragão in Porto, Portugal
Weather: Sunny, 19°C
Referee: Antonio Mateu Lahoz
This is going to be the first Champions League Final in history for Manchester City, whose owner Sheikh Mansour has paid plane tickets to his team’s supporters. Roughly 6,000 of them will be in the stands of Estádio do Dragão tonight.
Chelsea were also supposed to have 6k supporters in Portugal, but the club returned about 900 tickets after the fans refused to pay additional expenses (COVID testing, charter flights, etc.). The remaining batch of 16,500 seats have been given to neutrals.
Whom they’re going to support will probably depend on what’s going to happen in the game. And we do expect a real spectacle on the pitch!
Not only is the Champions League trophy at stake, but these two teams have played some exciting games in the past.
Manchester City Are All-In!
If Manchester City win tonight, it’s going to be this club’s highest achievement in history. It seems that ever since Sheikh Mansour’s corporation bought the team, they’ve been working on getting ahold of the Champions League trophy – so far without success.
With hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the project, it’s no surprise they’re favoured to win. Plus, Pep Guardiola’s team has been in sensational form this year, wrapping up their triumphant Premier League campaign with a 5-0 win over Everton in the final round.
That game was played six days ago, meaning that Man City had plenty of time to prepare for the big match. Knowing how meticulous their manager is, they undoubtedly covered all the bases already. The only thing that has to worry them is that Chelsea also have an ultra-diligent boss.
Tuchel Might be Chelsea’s Key Man
Since Thomas Tuchel took over in January, Chelsea have been nothing short of brilliant. Not only did he lead the team to a top-four finish in the Premier League, but he also led them to the UEFA Champions League final.
This is going to be Tuchel’s second consecutive UCL final. Last year, he managed Paris Saint-Germain in the final against Bayern Munich. Leading the Blues to the final stage of the premier European football competition makes Tuchel the only manager ever to take part in two Finals with two different teams in consecutive years.
The last time, he wasn’t successful; this time, he has a pretty good chance to get ahold of the trophy. The reason isn’t just that Chelsea have some fantastic players in the squad. It’s also because Tuchel seems to love playing against Guardiola-led teams.
At least, that’s what his record would suggest. The all-time record between these two is 4-1-2 in Guardiola’s favour. However, the two wins for Tuchel’s side happened in 2021.
The first of those was the Chelsea win over Manchester City in the semifinal of the FA Cup. The second was a Premier League victory for the Blues precisely three weeks ago.
Manchester City vs Chelsea Betting Picks
Four of the last 13 finals went the distance- two of those involved Chelsea. Perhaps we should see a draw after 90 minutes once again?
That wouldn’t be a massive surprise as the Champions League Finals tend to be cagey. Teams just don’t want to risk too much, which could explain why we saw under 2.5 goals in the previous two finals.
Another reason why this could be a close game is that the ref Mateu Lahoz is famous for not letting things get out of hands. The players on the pitch will have to behave themselves unless they want to get booked.
That particularly holds true for the English sides, seeing how Lahoz has handed out 25 yellows and five penalties in five starts. That includes 14 yellows and two penalties in games involving English clubs.
Although we probably aren’t going to see a crazy game tonight (think of the 2005 Istanbul Final), it doesn’t mean we’re in for a boring match. On the contrary, with so much quality in both sides, this fixture checks all the marks of an entertaining affair.
Prediction: Chelsea +0.50 Asian Handicap – 1.97 Bet365
Prediction: Correct Score 1-1 – 7.38 at Matchbook (shop around for better odds)
