Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel reacts after ‘incredible’ Champions League win
Speaking to BT Sport (h/t Express), Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has hailed his side’s incredible efforts as they beat Manchester City to win the UEFA Champions League.
Chelsea lifted the UEFA Champions League trophy for the second time in the club’s history by securing a narrow 1-0 win over Manchester City at Estadio Do Dragao in Porto. In what was a closely-contested, tactical battle, the Blues were the better team on the night and ended up triumphing courtesy of a first-half goal from Kai Havertz.
And, Tuchel, who has sparked a stunning turnaround since coming in at Chelsea in January earlier this year, hailed his side for the spirit that they had shown.
“It’s unbelievable. It’s incredible, what a fight. We made it 1-0, I didn’t know what to feel actually. Still I had the feeling, this would be different. It felt different, I told everyone that before. I just had a good feeling everyday that we would touch it [the trophy] in the end.”
Tuchel made the huge call of starting Havertz as the centre-forward on the night and the move paid off in a stunning way. The German international hasn’t had it easy in his debut season in London but repaid the faith of the manager with the only goal of the game.
And, Tuchel insisted that he was very happy for his compatriot, although he did add that he would have liked the team to score a second to not make it so nervy at the end.
“For Kai, I was so happy. It would have been nice in the moment to have gone 2-0 up though! It’s so hard to defend, there was deflected shots, throw ins, long balls but we got out the other side.”
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Tuchel has done an incredible job to take Chelsea all the way to the top of Europe, while beating some of the toughest teams in Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Manchester City along the way. But, credit is also due to Frank Lampard as it was he who put the building blocks in place for this team.
What a way to bring a close to what has been a roller coaster of a season! London is Blue. Europe is Blue!