The UEFA Champions League finals occur at Dragao Stadium tomorrow night, and BetXChange will do a quick preview of the same, bringing all the relevant information. This is the finale of the season in Europe and the match most fans waited to see. Manchester City is a massive favorite, but that doesn’t have to mean anything in games like this one. Chelsea is a very nasty opponent, with rock-solid defense and players who have no pressure on their back coming into this event. And as you know, that is sometimes crucial.
Preview
Manchester City is, without a doubt, the best team in Europe this year, up until this moment, of course. Pep Guardiola’s side played incredibly well since November smashing and bashing most of its rivals. The Spanish coach put together one of the best midfielders in the last 20 years, with each member of the same perfectly adjusting to its task.
The Citizens have relaxed in the last few matches, playing against the domestic opponents without any pressure as they secured the English Premier League title earlier. It is why their previous four games ended with both teams scoring and over 2.5 goals.
Yet six of seven matches before this stretch ended with under 2.5 goals, and with both teams not scoring, and those are the true results of City’s performances. This unit is one of the toughest ones when it comes to efficiency, as they keep the ball extremely well, killing the opponents’ morale in various ways.
Chelsea became one of the best defense in Europe since Thomas Tuchel became their coach, replacing Frank Lampard. In no time, the German imposed an ultra-defensive style of play, relying upon the Blues’ very fast forwards. Werner, Mount, Ziyech, Pulisic, and all others have one of the fastest transitions in the entire Europe.
His start was fantastic, with 10+ consecutive games without a defeat and a couple of goals allowed during that stretch. However, the Blues began to be inconsistent in the recent few weeks, having three defeats in the past four games. They’ve ended up fourth in the standings only because of Leicester’s unbelievable losses in the finish of the EPL. Otherwise, the team from Stamford Bridge would end up in the Europa League zone.
The rock-solid defense disappeared without any trace, as Chelsea allowed at least one goal in the previous five contests, not being able to score in two. Though if it is of any consolation to Blues’ fans, they did defeat City 1-2 recently.
Head to Head Games
This latest matchup was in the EPL, but as said, City had no competitive motive. The one prior to it, in the semis of the FA Cup, also saw Chelsea defeating Guardiola’s crew, 1-0. Manchester posted its only H2H victory of the year early in January, once they came back victorious from Stamford, 1-3.
Prediction
This will be a defensive-minded match because both teams use conservative tactics in contests with high stakes. That especially goes for Tuchel, whose only weapon in this event is defense, to be honest. Our best pick for this match would be under 2.5 goals. BetXChange offers solid odds on this choice – 0.65.
We do understand that the majority of the fans would like to see the pick considering the winner of the match, but you need to realize that such a bet would be extremely risky in these circumstances and that it is best to focus on the overall efficiency of the event.
