Champions League Final in Porto.

 Champions League Final in Porto. 

Firstly the Champions League Final was scheduled to take place among the bazaars and minarets of Istanbul, Turkey. Then some bright spark noticed that because a global pandemic had taken hold for just over a year now, Turkey was simply unable to fulfil its obligations because people were either dying and it just didn't seem right and proper that sport should take precedence to life and health. 

Besides, Turkey just became an unfeasible proposition and football was the last thing on any of our minds. True, the Premier League season has now finished and the Champions League trophy, so highly sought after by every single club in Europe, would still go ahead even though the venue for the Final was still undecided. It seemed absurd but true. Still, there was a lot to look forward to since for the third time now in its illustrious history the European Cup, as it used to be known, will be hosting two English teams in what should be called the Champions League final just to complicate matters even more. 

A couple of weeks ago it looked as if tonight's match would have been pencilled in for Wembley Stadium but then the FA withdrew their services because two English teams in an English national stadium just didn't sound fair. And, on reflection, home advantage would probably have favoured Chelsea, whose Stamford Bridge ground is but a London Eye distance from Wembley. Manchester City would probably be seeing light blue if not red but preferably the former since their noisy neighbours United are now licking their wounds after the Old Trafford team's defeat at the hands of Unai Emery's Villarreal in the Europa League Final.

Anyway the fact remains is Chelsea and Manchester City will be walking out into the Portuguese heat this evening doubtless buoyed and disappointed in different ways. Chelsea were beaten quite movingly by  Leicester City  in this year's FA Cup Final in their second consecutive Cup Final which might have seemed carelessness bordering on negligence. Then Chelsea discovered that all was not lost because Champions League football had been rubber stamped for next season. This could have been interpreted as a decent consolation prize rather like the kid who's denied the goldfish at the fair but was then rewarded with a bag of sweets. 

Manchester City, for their part, are in seventh heaven yet again, winning the Premier League title with some of the most delectable football seen in Britain since Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United and last season's Premier League winners, Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool. They didn't run away with the League as such but they did leave some deeply attractive legacies for future generations to come. City's football had astonishing originality, innovation, duplicity of the legal kind, cunning, wit, quick witted impulsiveness and a passing repertoire that belonged in the National Portrait Gallery. Tonight City will be hoping to add another masterpiece to their ever expanding collection. 

Your mind went back to the last time two English teams met in the Champions League Final. Then Mauricio Pochettino's Spurs literally burnt themselves out to an equally as frazzled Liverpool in what turned into one of the most forgettable Champions League Final since the last all English Final between Manchester United and Chelsea. 

There is a part of you that wants to believe that tonight's concluding game on the European football calendar will not be like the stinker between Spurs and Liverpool. A controversial penalty was the only goal of a game that miserably fell flat on its face. Even Mo Salah, surely one of Liverpool's most consistent striker and brilliant into the bargain, could hardly believe his luck. Porto must be crossing its fingers that Englishmen abroad will try to bring a classical end to the football season rather than one that deflates like a thousand punctured balloons. 

The neutral among us would like Manchester City to finally clinch the one prize that has just remained out of their reach. You hope that Kevin De Bruyne, City's cleverest, smartest, and most cultured of play makers will get his just desserts, a player who uses paintbrushes rather than blunt hammers to light up vitally important games. You trust that Riyad Mahrez, a master of invention and reinvention for City, will turn up to add yet more delicate touches to the City's attack. Then Fernandinho, full of Brazilian herbs and spices, accompanied by Ilkay Gundogan and Bernando Silva will be pushing, pressing, probing and stretching Chelsea to the point of no return. 

But Chelsea of course will naturally think that it's about time the Champions League trophy landed back in London. Besides, Chelsea used to be the centre of fashion, money, wealth and those arty types who used try on big hats in the 1960s Kings Road. Presumably Chelsea will be pinning their hopes on another N'Golo Kante, Jorginho and Ben Chilwell can find all of the right attacking connections. They will be hoping that Rudiger wins enough constructive ball to feed his willing attackers while also believing that Tino Werner can finally be a goal scoring match winner up front. The Stamford Bridge club also have to believe that the superb Mason Mount can be a conjuror and sorcerer in midfield. 

Today hundreds of Chelsea and City fans will gather in the bars and restaurants of Porto, flags aloft, beers customarily in hand, partisanship by the bucketful and gladly insulting their rival Premier League counterparts without a hint of remorse. This time though the Champions League Final will have to be a significant improvement on the Spurs- Liverpool debacle of 2019. If it doesn't meet the lofty standards expected of Liverpool's Bob Paisley sides then both Chelsea and City may have to live with the repercussions of their non actions. English football expects and deserves.