Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona reached the summit of European football at Wembley Stadium in 2011, playing Manchester United off the park to win their second Champions League trophy in three years, but the Catalan coach has failed to replicate that success at Bayern Munich and Manchester City.
On Saturday night, though, Guardiola has an opportunity to lift the famous trophy with Manchester City, who are making their first appearance in the Champions League final. This is Pep’s first time reaching the final since his last triumph in 2011.
“Reaching the final now gives meaning to everything we have done in the last four or five years. These players have been consistent,” Guardiola said after City knocked out Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-finals.
Manchester City had struggled to make it past the quarter-final stage of Europe’s premier club competition in Pep’s first four years at the club, losing out to Monaco (2017, in the last 16), Liverpool (2018), Tottenham Hotspur (2019) and Lyon (2020).
The Catalan coach also encountered problems in the semi-finals at Barcelona and Bayern, losing to Chelsea in 2012 with the Blaugrana before being knocked out at the penultimate step by Real Madrid (2014), Barcelona (2015) and Atletico Madrid (2016) whilst in charge in Bavaria.
Now, Guardiola has the opportunity to lift the third Champions League of his career in his 24th final overall, 10 years and one day after last winning it with Barcelona.
“When, as a player, we reached the final with Barcelona in 1992, we had already lost two [finals]. Sometimes it takes a process and other clubs get it right first time. I hope we are the latter,” declared Pep, who could become only the sixth manager to win the Champions League trophy with two different clubs.
Guardiola could join Carlo Ancelotti, Jupp Heynckes, Jose Mourinho, Ottmar Hitzfeld and Ernst Happel in doing so, while he also has the chance to match the feat of three Champions Leagues, which is currently an exclusive club of three coaches: Zinedine Zidane, Ancelotti and Bob Paisley.
“People think it’s easy to reach the Champions League final, but it’s extraordinary,” Guardiola said.
As a coach, the 50-year-old has reached 23 finals and won 19, losing four – an 82.6 percent success rate. With Manchester City, he has won all seven finals – four Carabao Cups, one FA Cup and two Community Shields.
Manchester City won the English quadruple in 2019, so now Guardiola is hoping to win the treble – the Premier League title, the Carabao Cup and the Champions League – in 2021. Pep is aiming to win the 32nd trophy of his career to close the gap on Sir Alex Ferguson, who has 49
It could be argued that, in Paris, Thomas Tuchel failed to win the Champions League with one of the most extraordinarily talented groups of players in the tournament, yet he is now one victory away from winning the trophy with a complete surprise contender in Chelsea, a victory that would rank as one of the all-time great coaching accomplishments.
Chelsea began the season in good spirits, getting their transfer business done quickly and expensively, with all major targets being delivered.
Excitement around Timo Werner and Kai Havertz was palpable, although both still had work to do before they could be considered world class.
Frank Lampard, though, struggled throughout the first half of the season and was eventually dismissed with the Blues sitting way outside the top four and facing near-certain Champions League elimination at the hands of runaway LaLiga Santander leaders Atletico Madrid.
Enter Tuchel
Having been unceremoniously dumped by Paris Saint-Germain on Christmas Eve, Tuchel didn’t take the ever-popular sabbatical as he jumped straight back into club coaching with Chelsea, following Lampard’s dismissal.
Critics were quick to line up in defence of the English coach, refusing to take heed of Tuchel’s incredible record and credentials.
Despite having a number of players who didn’t work hard enough to press from the front as he likes his team to do, Tuchel still got PSG closer to the Champions League triumph than they have ever been before or since, and his Borussia Dortmund team was a piece of attacking beauty.
His work at Chelsea has been instantly brilliant, calling players in from the cold – namely Antonio Rudiger – and he has also made those already there better.
Many expected Mason Mount to be taken out of the side without his main supporter in Lampard picking the team, but Tuchel has arguably made him an even better player.
What we have seen since the German’s appointment has been remarkable. Yes, Chelsea should easily be finishing inside the top four with the squad they have, but they had to work from a tremendous points disadvantage after Lampard left.
Tuchel secured Champions League football on the last day of the season, achieving the main goal set out for him by the club.
Now, this isn’t meant to be a disrespectful comment, but one of reality. At this moment, Chelsea have one or perhaps two players you could consider to be world class in N’Golo Kante and Jorginho.
The rest of the team are solid players at the top level, but nothing special. Yet, anyway. Mount, Werner and Havertz are all likely to take that jump into the world-class bracket in the next 18 months, but at this moment it wouldn’t be right to consider them there.
In getting this team to a Champions League final, Tuchel has helped a team play far above its ceiling.
Make no mistake, Chelsea’s performances have been nothing short of brilliant, and they deserve to be in the Champions League final on merit, but nobody would have predicted this outcome at the beginning of the season.
In terms of individual players, Chelsea are way below the talent of Bayern Munich, PSG, Manchester City and maybe even Liverpool. Yet, they’ve performed as a team as well, if not better, than most of those clubs mentioned.
Tuchel has a team working together
The main driving force behind Chelsea’s run to the final is that the Blues work so well as a team, characterised by Rudiger’s incredible leading performances since his return.
Chelsea work so well as a unit, and every player is so hard-working, that the former Mainz coach has found it easy to get the group to perform specific tactical systems depending on the opposition.
Atletico and Real Madrid weren’t given a sniff by a tactical superior Chelsea, whilst Porto were outclassed in ability.
Tuchel lost a lot of his reputation at the Parc des Princes, and it wasn’t exactly fair. He was never at any point coaching with a team like at Chelsea. He had to ask players to work exceedingly hard to make up for Neymar’s lack of off-the-ball effort.
At Chelsea, for all his faults in front of goal, Werner has been incredibly vital to Chelsea’s pressing, as well as playing on the shoulder of the last defender. Chelsea’s defenders are nowhere near good enough to play out slowly from the back, it was madness for Lampard to try and bring that to the team.
Tuchel simply allows the group to play to their strengths and if there is a quick, direct pass on to Werner, then the defenders are encouraged to play it. It’s a tactical ploy that has damaged Manchester City in two meetings against Tuchel’s Chelsea, and one which could make the difference in Saturday’s final.
Chelsea have had far better teams than the 2020/21 vintage, and they have failed in the Champions League. Even the side which won the tournament in 2012, was considered one of the weakest of the Roman Abramovich era, even though they retained incredible individuals like Didier Drogba, John Terry, Juan Mata and Frank Lampard, all of which were world class at that time.
This current Chelsea team doesn’t have players as good as that, and on paper shouldn’t be near the Champions League final, but Tuchel has shown the value of a good coach and if he can go one step beyond his efforts last season, his achievement will be one of the Champions League’s great modern tales.