Nine years after winning their first Champions League title in 2012, Chelsea are back in the grand finale, taking on an incredibly resilient Manchester City on May 29 at Porto, Portugal.
After a season and a half under club legend Frank Lampard, Thomas Tuchel took over the club in January this year and since then he has revolutionised Chelsea, churning out results with a compact defensive unit.
Come Saturday, if he can cross the final hurdle against Pep Guardiola’s side, Tuchel would’ve scripted a miraculous turnaround.
Let’s take a look at Chelsea’s journey in this year’s Champions League:
Group Stages
Coming into the 2020-21 season of the top European competition, Chelsea had quite a favourable group stage draw after being pitted against last year’s Europa League winner Sevilla, Russian Krasnodar and Ligue 1 club Stade Rennes.
Excepted to qualify for the Round of 16, Chelsea did just that after going undefeated in the group stages. Tuchel’s side just drew two games — the opening game of the group against Sevilla and the final game against Krasnodar.
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Meanwhile, they also hammered Rennes 3-0 at home and Sevilla 4-0 at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan.
Ahead of the knockout stages, Lampard was sacked and Chelsea roped in former Paris Saint-Germain boss Tuchel.
Round of 16
After topping Group E, Chelsea drew La Liga champions Atletico Madrid, who finished second in Group A below Bayern Munich. In the away leg at Bucharest, the two teams exchanged blows, however, the matters were extremely tight until Olivier Giroud found the pivotal goal at the 68-minute mark.
Back at Stamford Bridge, summer signing Hakim Ziyech scored in the first half and after Atleti centre-back Stefan Savic was sent off, Emerson Palmieri made at 2-0 (3-0 aggregate) late in the second half.
Quarterfinal
Chelsea negotiated the Atleti challenge masterfully, however, up next was an inspired FC Porto side, who had knocked out heavyweight Juventus in a thrilling Round of 16 contest.
But Chelsea were a handful for the Portugal side, as the London club registered a healthy 2-0 lead in the first leg. Mason Mount scored a sensational goal in the first half after fullback Ben Chilwell added the finishing touch.
In the second leg, Chelsea suffered their only defeat of the tournament, as they happily settled for a 0-1 loss and qualified for the penultimate round on aggregate.
Semifinal
Real Madrid, the most successful European club, were coming into the semis after bettering a lacklustre Liverpool over two legs in the quarters.
Although Real Madrid had a depleted squad owing to quite a few injuries, Chelsea knew they would have their job cut out.
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In the away leg, Chelsea grabbed an early goal, however, Madrid equalised through Karim Benzema against the run of play. Going into the second leg, both teams were still in the contest, however, Chelsea had a slight advantage with the away goal.
Utilising the advantage, Chelsea sat back deep and waited for the opportunity to hit the Los Blancos side on the break. And so they did.
Timo Werner finished off a counter-attack to give Chelsea the early advantage and finally, a goal from Mount put the tie to bed. Real Madrid had no answer to Chelsea’s deep defensive line.
But on Saturday, Chelsea will surely be faced with the most comprehensive challenge. City have blown away heavyweights like Borussia Dortmund and PSG and will be on the hunt for their first Champions League title.
Can Tuchel and Chelsea crown their journey by winning the silverware?
