Chelsea had the better game plan and bigger, stronger, taller players to execute the plan. City’s corner kicks, of which, typically, there were several in the closing minutes of stoppage time, became corner throws by Kyle Walker. And this time there was no Edin Dzeko to head the ball in. City have a superabundance of smaller, exceptionally quick players. But they have no bull like Kylian Mbappe or Mario Balotelli, no Yaya Toure, not even a Micah Richards, and no Dzeko Size only matters if you let it
lean on you but City’s players were not so much quicker than Chelsea’s to round them cleanly and break in alone. They were nearly always muscled or crowded off the ball, their shots redirected before ever heading goalward their passes hurried and the lanes clogged. They lost possession, or the attack would dribble out of bound, or Chelsea would break the other way.
“You cannot pass the ball into the net,” and yet that is what tiki-taka results. When encountering Chelsea’s wall City would pass horizontally or back. You have to go over the wall when you cannot pass through it. It was on a dispossession and vertical passing that Chelsea scored their, and the game’s, only goal. City did not cross until about midway through the second half. There was usually a Chelsea player there—so disciplined—but City’s greatest threats came off centering the ball.
This is embarrassing for all City people. They were shut out and almost shut out in chances. So at five o’clock it is Chelsea who are Champions of Europe.
CITY FOREVER!
