By Emmanuel Okogba
Chelsea will face Manchester City in the final of this year’s Champions League after beating Real Madrid 2-0 at Stamford Bridge and 3-1 on aggregate.
Real Madrid needed an outright win or a score draw to stand a chance of winning the competition for a record 14th time but Chelsea had plans of their own.
The 2012 winners controlled the game from start to finish, enjoying the luxury of missing several one-one-ones against an in-form ex-Chelsea shot stopper, Thibaut Courtois.
Timo Werner opened scoring in the 28th minute after an earlier effort was ruled as offside. A Kai Havertz clever chip ricocheted off the cross-bar and fell into Werner’s path to head into an unguarded goal that extended Chelsea’s aggregate lead to 2-1 at the break.
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Chelsea’s goalkeeper Edouard Mendy proved dependable stopping two fantastic efforts from Karim Benzema to keep Madrid at bay.
Mason Mount put the game beyond Zidane’s team, converting from a nicely worked Christian Pulisic pass in the 85th minute to send Chelsea on their way to Istanbul.
All-English Final
The match between Manchester City and Chelsea will be the third time the Champions League final will be between teams from England. Chelsea was also involved in the first against Manchester United in the 2007/08 season, losing to the latter via penalty. The second was between Liverpool and Tottenham in 2019.
If Chelsea wins, it will be the second time the London side are champions while City are having a go at it for the first time.
Second chance for Tuchel
Thomas Tuchel will hope to right his wrongs from last year’s final against Bayern Munich after his PSG side at the time lost to a better Bayern Munich side.
Tuchel who has now teamed up with Thiago Silva who was also present in the PSG side has led Chelsea to a FA Cup final against Leicester City looks set to secure a Champions League spot for the Blues, in the event that they fail to beat City come May 29th.
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