It was the game that was supposed to crown a dynasty. Honestly, if you asked any neutral back in May 2021 who was going to lift the trophy at the Estádio do Dragão, the answer was almost always Manchester City. They had the better squad. They had Pep Guardiola. They had just waltzed to another Premier League title. But the 2021 UEFA Champions League Final didn't follow the script. Instead, it became a masterclass in tactical discipline from Thomas Tuchel and a nightmare of "overthinking" that still gets discussed in pubs across Manchester and London today.
Kai Havertz scored the only goal. One goal. That was all it took to separate two English giants on a humid night in Porto.
Chelsea weren't even supposed to be there, really. They’d sacked Frank Lampard in January while sitting ninth in the league. Tuchel arrived, turned them into a defensive wall, and somehow navigated past Real Madrid to set up an all-English showdown. Most people forget how tense that atmosphere was. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the final had been moved from Istanbul to Porto at the last minute. Only about 14,000 fans were allowed in, but the noise they made sounded like 100,000 because of the stakes.
The Lineup That Shook the World (For the Wrong Reasons)
When the team sheets dropped an hour before kickoff, social media basically exploded. Pep Guardiola had done it again. He’d tinkered.
No Rodri. No Fernandinho.
City started the 2021 UEFA Champions League Final without a recognized defensive midfielder. It was a staggering gamble. Guardiola opted for total creative fluidly, starting Ilkay Gündogan as the deepest midfielder, flanked by Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva. He wanted to pass Chelsea off the pitch. He wanted to overload the half-spaces and leave the Chelsea defenders chasing shadows.
It backfired. Spectacularly.
Without that "anchor" in front of the back four, City looked fragile every time they lost the ball. Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic (who came on later) had oceans of space to run into. You could see the confusion on the pitch. Kevin De Bruyne was trying to press, but there was no one behind him to mop up the second balls. It was tactical suicide disguised as genius.
Tuchel, meanwhile, kept it simple. He played his 3-4-2-1. He trusted N'Golo Kanté to do the work of three men. And Kanté did exactly that. If there’s a single player who defined that night, it was the diminutive Frenchman. He was everywhere. He broke up attacks, he carried the ball forward, and he made City’s world-class midfield look like amateurs.
That Kai Havertz Moment
The goal came in the 42nd minute. It was a move of pure, direct simplicity.
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Ederson played a ball out, Chelsea won it back, and Mason Mount turned in the center of the park. Because City had no defensive midfielder, Mount had the time to look up and pick a pass that split Ruben Dias and John Stones like a hot knife through butter. Kai Havertz timed his run perfectly.
He rounded Ederson. The stadium went quiet for a split second.
The ball rolled into the empty net.
Havertz, who had struggled for much of his debut season in England after a massive transfer from Bayer Leverkusen, had just justified his entire price tag in one movement. It’s funny how football works. You can be a "flop" for nine months, but score the winner in the 2021 UEFA Champions League Final, and you’re a legend forever.
The Kevin De Bruyne Tragedy
If the first half was about tactical errors, the second half was about pure heartbreak.
Early in the second period, Kevin De Bruyne collided with Antonio Rüdiger. It was a heavy, shoulder-to-head hit. De Bruyne stayed down. When he finally got up, his eye was already swelling shut. He was crying. He knew his final was over.
Watching the best playmaker in the world leave the pitch in tears, replaced by Gabriel Jesus, felt like the moment the air left City's tires. They tried to push. They brought on Sergio Agüero for his final appearance in a City shirt, hoping for one last "Agüeroooo" moment. But it never came. Chelsea’s back three of César Azpilicueta, Thiago Silva (who actually went off injured early), and Andreas Christensen—along with the indomitable Rüdiger—were perfect.
City finished the game with only one shot on target.
One.
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For a team that scored over 100 goals that season, that is a damning statistic. It showed that Tuchel had Guardiola's number. In fact, that was the third time Tuchel had beaten Pep in just a few months. He’d figured out how to absorb the pressure and strike on the break.
Why the 2021 Final Changed Both Clubs
We often talk about these games as isolated events, but the fallout from Porto changed the trajectory of both teams.
For Chelsea, it was a false dawn. They thought they were back at the top of European royalty. Within two years, the club would be under new ownership, Tuchel would be gone, and most of that starting XI would be sold or moved on. It was a lightning-in-a-bottle moment.
For Manchester City, it was the ultimate lesson. Guardiola didn't win the Champions League that year, but he learned. He realized that in the biggest games, you need balance. You need a Rodri. You need a platform. When they finally won it in 2023, it felt like a direct response to the failures of the 2021 UEFA Champions League Final. They were more pragmatic. Less "mad scientist."
The game also cemented N'Golo Kanté's legacy. He won the Man of the Match award, and honestly, they could have given it to him three times over. He finished the game with more ball recoveries and successful tackles than anyone else on the pitch. It was perhaps the greatest individual midfield performance in a final since Zinedine Zidane in 2002.
Tactical Breakdown: Why City’s Press Failed
People blame the lack of a DM, and they’re right. But it was deeper than that.
Chelsea’s wing-backs, Ben Chilwell and Reece James, were essential. They pinned back Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling. City usually use their wingers to stretch the pitch, but Chilwell and James were so disciplined that Mahrez and Sterling ended up playing like extra defenders.
When City tried to press high, Chelsea just bypassed the midfield entirely. They played long balls to Timo Werner. Now, Werner caught a lot of flak for his finishing, and he missed a couple of sitters in that final too. But his movement was vital. He kept dragging Dias and Stones out of position, creating the gap that Havertz eventually exploited.
It was a game of chess where one player threw away his Queen in the first five minutes.
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The Agüero Farewell That Wasn't
It still stings for City fans to think about Sergio Agüero’s exit.
He came on in the 77th minute. The greatest goalscorer in the club's history. He’d spent a decade dragging them to titles. He wanted this one more than anything. But he hardly touched the ball. Chelsea’s low block was so compact that there was no room for him to operate.
When the final whistle blew, the cameras panned to him. He was sobbing. It was a cruel end to a legendary career at the club. But that’s the Champions League. It doesn't care about fairytales. It only cares about who is better over 90 minutes.
Actionable Takeaways for Football Students
If you’re a coach, a player, or just a die-hard fan trying to understand the game better, the 2021 UEFA Champions League Final is a perfect case study.
- Don't ignore the "Anchor": No matter how much creative talent you have, a defensive screen is non-negotiable in knockout football. Without Rodri, City had no way to stop the transition.
- The "Tuchel Block": If you want to beat a possession-heavy team, you don't need the ball. You need to control the spaces where they want to put the ball. Chelsea ceded possession but controlled the geometry of the pitch.
- Big Game Mentality: Kai Havertz and N'Golo Kanté showed that form going into a final matters less than the ability to execute a specific plan under pressure.
To really appreciate what happened, you have to look at the xG (expected goals). Chelsea finished with an xG of around 1.35 compared to City's 0.45. Despite all the talent on the pitch, City didn't just lose; they were comfortably handled.
If you want to dive deeper into this, go back and watch the 20-minute highlight reels focusing specifically on N'Golo Kanté's positioning. Notice how he never actually "chases" the ball. He waits for the ball to enter his zone and then pounces. It’s a masterclass in defensive anticipation.
Next, compare the 2021 lineup to the 2023 winning lineup against Inter Milan. The presence of Rodri and a more settled four-man defense shows exactly what Guardiola learned from the heartbreak in Porto. Sometimes you have to lose the biggest game of your life to figure out how to win it later.
The 2021 final remains a testament to the fact that on any given night, a perfectly executed plan will beat a collection of superior individuals. It was the night the underdog bit back, and it changed the Premier League hierarchy for years to come.