How Chelsea won the Champions League final | Guardiola's tactical blunder

Against all odds Chelsea did the unthinkable The Blues defeated Manchester City in the Champions League

final

and claimed the prestigious trophy for the second time in the club's history However, was it really unthinkable for Chelsea to beat City themselves? equipment that many experts had made? called the best team in the world when you have a coach as experienced and

tactical

ly accurate as pep

guardiola

you will always be in the thick of things the spanish tactician has won many trophies during his legendary coaching career his city team They played beautiful football during the 2020-21 campaign and won the Premier League quite easily, with Manchester United the only team that could keep up with them for a while over the last three years.

Manchester City has proven to be one of the most successful. For European teams, the only flaw for them will be their inability to go all the way in Europe, something the club is loving this time around. It was supposed to be an easy job against Chelsea, who on paper are still in the process of rebuilding. and showing promising signs, but it hadn't reached that point yet and that was perhaps the biggest folly of all, everyone kept discounting

chelsea

and in the end the blues prevailed after three games this season in the first division and the fa cup manchester city and

chelsea

faced each other in the most important match of the european football club season the

champions

league

final

at the beginning of 2021 the same chelsea team began to look like a group of fans under the command of frank lampard and lost their match At home, that match was a turning point for Pep Guardiola's team.

In the campaign, the Citizens would achieve an incredible streak of victories that would make them

champions

of England ever since. However, Tuchel has had Guardiola's number, winning every match against his rival and doing so in style. A Kai Javert goal in the first half was all that was needed. When Chelsea won the intense strategic battle, if you remember, in one of our previous videos we mentioned that the game will be more of a chess game and that the game had many intriguing

tactical

aspects for the player. system selection and training, so we thought we would break this game down bit by bit and present an analysis, but before we do, make sure to subscribe to our channel and keep notifications on at all times.

We all knew City would dominate possession from the start. They initially had about 60% of the possession and transitioned to a 3-1-3-3 formation. Alexander Sinchenko would move into midfield with Phil Foden moving to a more central position in what was like a kite-shaped midfield that included Ilkai Gunderwan. The base was a pivot, so to speak, and the wingers were ordered to stay high and open to create a numerical advantage, so in such a system we wonder why Guardiola decided to play without a striker, it doesn't seem so extraordinary since the Spanish strategist has dispensed with one for most of the current campaign with this kite formation.

Kevin de Bruyne was acting as a false nine, but the Belgian never had any open space to exploit once it became clear that Tuchel's tactics were spot on in the midfielder. He ended up playing as a regular striker instead of using the most important attributes of him. De Bruyne was forced to play against the last defender. Not surprisingly, his influence was greatly influenced, so when the Belgian continued fighting, he switched places with Foden and it was the same. Once again, in fact, the youngster had zero influence throughout the entire match, which once again begs the question of why you wouldn't use a traditional striker normally when your best player comes off the field due to injury.

This time it is supposed to be a big setback, although Bruyne's departure did not make much difference. The experienced midfielder had only managed 37 touches and his replacement Jesus managed 22 in exactly half the time. Thomas Tuchel is not far behind either. The German has built his reputation over the years and is He is a master at manipulating other trainers and thinks about them all the time. Every setback in his career has only been taken as a lesson, knowing that he could have done things differently last year, when he lost in the Champions League final. The PSG coach knew what he needed his team to do.

The Blues initially opted for five defenders at the back, allowing City's midfielders to occupy space behind the lines and navigate through passing lanes. Established cities clearly demonstrated what they were seeking to do. things more centrally when a counterattack Chelsea fell into a lower block and the shape was very compact, this restricted all the space and more than that it all started from the front, teemo werner was on ilkaigunduan and prevented the german from receiving passes while rudiger marked Bernardo Silva. Very tight, the Portuguese also struggled like the rest of his teammates, managing only 27 touches, which meant that Zinchenko remained his only option to advance the ball further up the pitch from the right side.

The Ukrainian had a maximum of 109 touches, which shows how much the team. Unfortunately, the winger was unable to create a single chance during the 90 minutes, while Reese James had Raheem Sterling's number. The young right back made seven successful tackles. The central region, where City were looking for numerical promotion, quickly became a forbidden place. Angola in particular, Kanté was a man on a mission and the Frenchman put in his best turn of the season and continued to frustrate his opponents. No defensive midfielder, why in a Champions League final? You prepare well for all eventualities and if you have Pep Guardiola as one of the coaches in an event of such magnitude, you can bet everything you have that he will never ignore this very basic thing.

Gunduan is a good midfielder, but he is not the type of player who constantly interrupts the game and makes simple passes. The German's defensive positioning was not very good and one wonders why Guardiola did not use either Fernandinho or Rodri, who would at least have been able to defend themselves if the team was trapped at half-time, as a result there were big gaps in midfield. of City in open play and Gunduan was taken out of his position more than once, of course, the midfielder cannot be blamed as he took orders from a coach than us. I'm sure he knew what he was doing, but he still made a big bet.

Guardiola finally rectified his mistake by removing Silva to bring in Fernandinho, which was definitely an admission of his mistake. Unfortunately, the Spaniard brought in the veteran at a time when the team was chasing the game due to the lack of a defensive midfielder. Before the introduction of Fernandinho, City's pressing was very imperfect. They continued to fight through the wider channels and stayed in. a tight three man shape when they did not have possession chelsea counted that with a simple four man attack chelsea attackers were practically free when in possession, isolating the two center backs and making the crowd anxious and that is why they were able to score edouard mendy passed the ball to ben chilwell, forcing kyle walker to close it the former leicester player passed the ball to a mount mason at the moment when john stones was in the red zone and could not judge Mount through a ball that was gladly received by Havartz, who rounded Edison and scored his first Champions League goal at the moment it mattered most while the Werner team missed a couple of decent chances, the German was quite good, An untrained eye might have overlooked what was good about him, but on the goal side we saw some things that show just how important the former Leipzig player was.

The forward was isolated with Rubandiash in the structure. -to goal In a display of clear intelligence, Werner diverted his marker to the left with a run that served as a perfect decoy as, under pressure, the German happily chased long balls and ran out the clock to be fair. Tukel has started to get the best out of Werner, whose great off-ball movement and commendable work rate make him a great player to watch once he gets his shooting boots on this guy, he will be a serious threat although we can't deny the tactical errors committed by Guardiola. Giving it to Chelsea, who stuck to a proven game plan, adapted when necessary and understood their opponents well, while no one expected them to take the game to City, was one of the greatest team efforts we have seen in a long time. , James and Kante in particular was out of this world.

Tukul may not have received much credit, but the German had clearly prepared his team for all scenarios and did something few coaches could do. He forced Guardiola to carry out his orders. Guardiola's greatest strength and now weakness. It's just that sometimes he can't resist the temptation to change things. The adjustments have helped them in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, but implementing a rather novel tactical plan was a big mistake and had an impact on all of City's attacking players. lose the champions

league

final they would have had to shoot themselves in the foot and they did it in a big way they didn't start with a recognized defensive midfielder and they brought in fernandinho too late even more they should have started with a pure striker instead of putting to debliner and foden there when their attributes could have been more useful elsewhere, this is where they lost the champions league final, the blues on the other hand wanted to keep things simple, they didn't overcomplicate them even when they were struggling for keeping the ball and I got the reward for that, so what happens now?

Guardiola's weight for European glory continues. An examination of conscience will be necessary at the club and individual level. Surely Chelsea, meanwhile, can bask in the glory and enjoy this. They really have earned it. But knowing Tuchel, the German would be eager to quickly start working on a strategy in which Chelsea can attempt to dominate the Premier League next season and perhaps even snatch the Premier League title from City.