PORTO: As Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta cradled the European Cup before thrusting it into the air to the backdrop of fireworks, Pep Guardiola and his distraught Manchester City players stood way behind the winners’ rostrum and looked on in anguish.

Champions League glory once again for Chelsea, nine years after their first title and just 123 days after manager Thomas Tuchel’s season-changing arrival at the club.

Yet more misery in world football’s biggest club competition for City and Guardiola, their genius manager whose overthinking proved costly once more.

Germany forward Kai Havertz’s 42nd-minute goal earned Chelsea a surprisingly comfortable 1-0 win in the Champions League’s third all-English final at the Estadio Do Dragao on Saturday.

That the last match of a club season heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic was settled by a goal from Havertz felt apt, given he suffered badly after contracting the disease midway through his first year at the club having signed for nearly $100 million.

He has recovered to play a big role in Chelsea’s end to the season, and showed why the club made him the centerpiece of their $300 million spending spree last offseason in the way he ran onto a through-ball by Mason Mount, evaded goalkeeper Ederson Moraes and rolled the ball into an empty net to decide a tight encounter played in front of a 16,500 crowd.

“I really don’t know what to say,” Havertz said. “I waited a long time for this.”

As for his fellow German, Tuchel, he only had to wait one season to get over the disappointment of losing the 2020 final when in charge of Paris St Germain. Fired by PSG in December, he was hired by Chelsea a month later to resuscitate a team that had lost its way and had dropped to ninth in the Premier League and has delivered a Champions League title four months later.

“It’s a huge step to arrive in the final and it’s an even bigger one to bite your way through and to make it all the way to the cup,” Tuchel said. “It’s a fantastic achievement. To share it with everybody is incredible. We made it. Wow. I don’t know what to feel. I was so grateful to arrive a second time [in the final]. I felt different.

“It was an incredibly tough fight, what a fight. The [players] were determined to win this. We wanted to be a stone in their [City’s] shoe. We encouraged everybody to step up and step out, to be more brave. The effort was huge. We overcame some difficult moments and had a fantastic attitude to defending.”

It was billed as a tactical duel between Tuchel and Guardiola, two of the world’s most innovative coaches, and there was a clear winner.

While Tuchel got his approach spot on, Guardiola will surely regret tinkering with a settled team that had swept City to their first Champions League final and to the verge of another trophy treble, after winning the Premier League and the English League Cup.

Starting without a striker was expected Guardiola has preferred that in the Champions League knockout matches but going without a specialist holding midfielder in Fernandinho or Rodri was a major surprise and destabilised City.

City lost their shape and their renowned composure. Seeking to win the Champions League for the third time as a coach and first since 2011, Guardiola was guilty of overthinking his tactics again in a big game as he was for City’s quarter-final eliminations at the hands of Olympique Lyonnais, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool over the past three years.

City had to wait 13 years after being taken over by Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour just to get to the Champions League final. Despite winning three of the last four Premier League titles for City, Spaniard Guardiola failed to deliver the coveted European trophy he last won with Barcelona.

“It is the first time we’re here, we’ll learn, we’ll come back,” Guardiola said. “The players did everything, they wanted to do well, to win this competition, sometimes you perform well, sometimes not.

“They’re a really good team, but we competed perfectly against them. In the second half we deserved to score one goal but we couldn’t do it. I would like to say it was an exceptional season for us. Unfortunately we couldn’t win.

“Decisions are always to try to win the game,” said Guardiola, when asked to reflect on his team selection. “I did what I thought was the best decision.”

It was a decision that backfired, though. Ilkay Gundogan, City’s top scorer this season and a revelation in his attacking-midfield role, ended up dropping in as the anchorman in midfield to protect the back line.

HAVERTZ GOAL

And it quickly became apparent the move had left City’s defence exposed with Chelsea creating early chances, three of which fell to German Timo Werner who failed to capitalise — miskicking one, shooting softly at Ederson and then finding the side-netting.

Gundogan’s already difficult task got harder when he was booked for a foul on Mount in the 34th minute.

Chelsea also suffered a setback when their experienced Brazilian centre-back Thiago Silva went down awkwardly after a header and had to limp off six minutes before the break, being replaced by Andreas Christensen.

However, three minutes later Chelsea struck. Mount had so much time and space to thread a pass from inside his own half through the centre of City’s defense — which was opened up by Werner’s decoy run — for Havertz to run onto. Ederson rushed out of his goal but was unable to stop Havertz from skipping past him and slotting into the unguarded net.

City now needed to break down a Chelsea defence that has been exceptional under Tuchel.

But their night got worse when key midfielder Kevin De Bruyne had to go off with a concussion injury after an accidental clash with Antonio Rudiger left him on the ground, with Guardiola throwing on Brazilian striker Gabriel Jesus in his place.

Christian Pulisic came on for Chelsea to become the first American to play in a Champions League final and almost the first to score when he was slipped in by Havertz but then drifted his shot just wide of the post.

City gradually began to get the upper hand and Guardiola turned to Sergio Aguero for the latter stages, but there was to be no glorious send-off as a City player for the Argentine striker, as a hopeful effort from Riyad Mahrez clipped the bar in the sixth minute of injury time.

City’s players slumped to the ground at the final whistle as Rudiger sprinted the length of the field to celebrate with the nearly 6,000 Chelsea fans at the Dragao, a late replacement venue for the title match that was originally scheduled to be staged in Turkey.

“It’s such a special occasion. At this moment in time, we’re the best team in the world. You can’t take that away from us,” said Mount, who has been outstanding for the Stamford Bridge side this season.

Guardiola remains one adrift of the record for the coaches with most wins in the competition, held jointly by Bob Paisley, Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane while Tuchel became the third straight German to coach a Champions League-winning team after Liverpool’s Juergen Klopp in 2019 and Hansi Flick at Bayern Munich last season.

Tuchel has faced City three times in six weeks and won every time. Chelsea’s Russian owner Roman Abramovich, watching from the stands, must have had a wry smile to himself as once again his ruthless approach to managerial changes has paid off.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2021