Chelsea manager, Thoma Tuchel, believes that his team is capable of defeating Manchester City in the Champions League final later this month.

Tuchel who only joined Chelsea in January after the sack of Frank Lampard has taken the club from ninth to fourth in the league as well as the FA Cup and the UCL finals.

Speaking after the Blues stalled City’s league title confirmation on Saturday with a 2-1 comeback victory at the Etihad, Tuchel now has his sights on lifting the UCL final when they face Pep Guardiola’s side again in Istanbul on May 29.

Tuchel who has now won his first two meetings with Guardiola since his appointment as Chelsea head coach admitted that the outcome of their third meeting cannot be predicted.

“The win gives us confidence but, as I have said before, this result will not change the [Champions League] final,” Tuchel told Sky Sports.
“The final is a very unique game and you cannot predict what will happen.

“You need to be well prepared, we will have some changes again, they will have some changes again, but we will arrive with the knowledge we are capable of beating City. This is what we have now, and this will not change until Istanbul,” he said.

Speaking about his side’s performance against City in the Premier League yesterday, Tuchel however admitted that if Aguero had scored his penalty, the game would have been over before it really started.

“What a performance in the second half,” the Chelsea boss said. “It was more or less equal in the first half, but we almost gave the game away in the last five minutes. If they scored the penalty, maybe the game would have been over before it really started. If it went to 2-0, maybe we wouldn’t have had a chance to come back.

“It was very hard, we were 1-0 down and had an injured player, I’m absolutely impressed by the performance and reaction in the second half and we deserved to win the second half.

“If you want to steal all three points at the Etihad in this situation, of course you need a bit of luck, momentum, and decisions from the referee. But we had many chances in the second half, so a big, big congratulations to the players.

“We were more confident in the second half, the goal helped us a lot and suddenly we were more physical and recovered the balls higher. It was a physical battle and we never stepped back or gave up, instead we increased our motivation. I’m absolutely delighted with the performance.”