Welcome to our live MBM coverage of the 29th Champions League final … or if we’re doing things properly, paying proper heed to history and romance, the 66th European Cup final. Had things gone smoothly, we’d be at the Ataturk in Istanbul for the latest edition of the biggest and most glamorous club match in world football, but coronavirus has put paid to that, and so everyone’s made it to the easier-to-access Estádio do Dragão in Porto instead. A shame in one respect, given the other-worldly Ataturk would have been a fitting venue for the denouement of an unearthly season … but a day on the Douro is one heck of a Plan B. Está ligado!
Manchester City are playing in their first European Cup final. It’s the end of a journey they began in 1968, when Malcolm Allison promised his and Joe Mercer’s English champions would set about Europe “as they have not been attacked since the days of the old Real Madrid … I think a lot of these European people are cowards.” Sure enough, having talked the big talk, they fell at the first hurdle against Fenerbahce. That brilliant Lee-Bell-Summerbee side brought home some European silverware in the end, winning the 1970 Cup Winners’ Cup, but that night everyone was watching the FA Cup final replay live in glorious technicolor on BBC1, City’s 2-1 win over Gornik Zabrze relegated to late-night black-and-white highlights over on 2. Hapless happenstance always used to befall City back in the day.
Times change, though, and millions will be watching this evening as magisterial City finally look to make good on Allison’s words. City have scored 60 goals in their last 25 Champions League games. They’ve scored 25 in this campaign, letting in just four en route to the final. All this without a designated striker! They’re favourites tonight to win their second European bauble and their first European Cup.
Chelsea, playing in their third European Cup final, will have something to say about that. The Pensioners should have won the trophy in 2008, only for John Terry to freeze in the moment against Manchester United; they did lift it in 2012, Didier Drogba the imperious hero of the hour against Bayern Munich. Their run to the final this year has been the impressive equal of City, seeing off the new Spanish champions Atletico Madrid without too much fuss, while only profligate finishing prevented them from running up a cricket score against the famous Real Madrid. If they make it tonight, it’ll be their second European Cup and their sixth major European trophy in total, having won a couple of Europa Leagues (2013, 2019) and Cup Winners Cups (1971, 1998) in the past.
Chelsea go into this match having lost three of their last four matches, including a painful defeat in the FA Cup final, and a loss at Aston Villa which could have cost them a top-four place. Another reason City are favourites, then … until you consider their recent form against Pep Guardiola’s side: a 1-0 win in the FA Cup semi, and a 2-1 victory in the league at the Etihad.
It’s easy to make a case for either side, then, which is exactly as it should be ahead of the European Cup final. Team news and assorted blether to follow. Kick off is at 8pm (local and BST). It’s on!