Fabio Capello gives Thomas Tuchel credit for Chelsea’s Champions League victory, but claims Pep Guardiola got it all wrong for Manchester City. ‘John Stones can’t defend.’
Kai Havertz scored the only goal in Porto this evening, giving the Blues the trophy with a coach who only replaced fired Frank Lampard in January.
“Chelsea owe Tuchel a great deal, because he showed that they had made the right investments and got the best out of these players that they spent a lot of money on,” Capello said on Sky Sport Italia.
“In my view, Guardiola got the starting XI wrong. Gundogan in front of the defence couldn’t act as a midfield filter. Stones is a player who can’t defend and Gundogan couldn’t provide a filter.
“The team looked far more balanced in the second half, but Manchester City gifted 45 minutes to Chelsea and could easily have been 2-0 down by the time they changed.”
It is now a decade since Guardiola last won the Champions League, when he was still on the Barcelona bench.
Alessandro Del Piero was won over by the midfield work-rate of N’Golo Kante.
“I had cramp on his behalf after about 20 minutes. He was always there, one-against-one, clearing everything up. Looking also at the games that took Chelsea to the Final, Kante was decisive.”