N’Golo Kanté has been named player of the match for the 2021 UEFA Champions League final after helping Chelsea defeat Manchester City 1-0 in Porto.
The French international was a consistently solid presence in the Blues midfield, harrying his City counterparts and thwarting attacks with shrewd
interceptions.
Likewise named player of the match in both of Chelsea’s semi-final contests with Real Madrid, Kanté also put in a crucial tackle on Kevin De Bruyne early in the second half and looked to carry the ball forward whenever possible.
Read Also: UPDATE: Chelsea Beat Man City To Land Second UCL Title
UEFA Technical Observers John Peacock and Patrick Vieira: “A massive influence in the middle third with and without the ball, forming an excellent partnership with Jorginho.”
Kanté may be 30 now, but his influence is showing no sign of diminishing. He wins trophies, pure and simple, and his engine is just incredible.
The midfielder covers every blade of grass, disrupts the opposition – just ask Luka Modrić and Toni Kroos – and seldom wastes the ball. It’s no wonder his trophy cabinet is bulging.
23 Comments
Can FIFA just please hand the ballon d’or award to this young man already. Yhooo….What a player….!!!
71% of the earth surface is covered by water, the rest is covered by N’GOLO KANTE.
@Ayphillydegreat,
You wan make me crack my ribs? Dis guy no be from Senegal? France de thieve player, use them win trophy; England de thieve player, dump then for bench or frustrate dem.
Kante, carry go, my broda.
I use to say a team need little luck to win the UCL and Chelsea do have that from the both legs of semi final, playing a depleted RM team to the final where guardiola hand over the cup to them by himself, I can’t fathom what went into his head to put out a team without DM and striker, I initially thought both Fernandinho and Rodri was injured, when you think you know it all sometime. Anyway congrat to Chelsea.
@femi you create your own luck Chelsea did just that.
Can super eagles players died on the pitch just to win trophy like what Chelsea did no matter the opposition
Pep seems to have been listening to @jimmyball’s theory that there’s nothing like natural position in football….LMAO….all professional footballers can adapt to any position. Lol.
I’ve never seen a Giadiola coached side rendered so ineffective the whole time they didn’t have a natural DM and ST on the pitch. The only time I feared Chelsea were not going to win last night was when fernandinho and aguero were on the pitch.
In football, they say you don’t fix what is not broken. Pep fixed what wasn’t broken last night a paid for it.
Dr Dreyola Majekodunmi, you got it wrong here.
@Dr.Drey… A good defence with swift and effective counter attacking is always potent against any well-oiled midfield setup… Thomas Tuchel puts more trust in defence with wicked counter attacking to the all-possession and offensive approach of Guardiola… it was more the reason to start defensive and grow into the game that rendered Man City rudderless not so much for leaving out fernandinho. Finals between an almost equally matched oppositions are often more game of nerves and who can make of the most of chances… Tuchel went into Guardiola’s head and ate him up from the inside out… he has done it three times against Guardiola just like the famous Mourinho/Inter Milan win against Guardiola/Barcelona… It was never a miscalculation on the part of Guardiola that undid Man City but rather someone with better chess moves and intuition…
Oga…..It wasnt Tuchel that told Guadiola to pick a dysfunctional team. Forget this ‘tuchel went into guadiola’s head and ate him up narrative’…..the team lists of both teams were released only 2hrs and 10 mins b4 kickoff…..that would never have been enough time to alter Chelsea’s tactical plans which they had trained with/for the whole week.
Everyone who is who in the game of football is still trying to understand what occasioned such a disastrous “video game lineup” from a person like Guardiola in the final of the UCL. Forcing a player like Gundogan to “adapt” to being an anchorman and deBruyne to be a false 9…converting players into positions they aren’t familiar with against a fellow UCL contender…???? Who gambles is such a manner with such an untested set-up. I dont even think City has ever lineup in that way before…even when they had injury crises…not to talk of doing it in the final of the UCL. No matter who the opponent is, any team who has managed to reach a UCL final must be a strong one and deserves respect. The final of any tournament is the worst platform for experiments.
If you play into your opponents hand they will surely eat you up and even lick the plate. Chelsea may have won the previous meetings, but not as to totally render Man city completely useless until less than 30 mins till the end of the game when Pep decided to admit his guilt and correct his mistakes. Unfortunately, this Chelsea team is not one you can break in just 25 minutes.
Pep put out a team that malfunctioned badly…QED.
So when next you choose to line up Zaidu and Ebuehi to pair Leon Balogun at CB an then flank them with Olayinka and Chukwueze as left and right wingback respectively, have it at the back of your mind that you can line up 11 of your best players yet be lining up a stall of a team. Unfortunately for Pep, he reacted to the stall too late and couldn’t prevent a disastrous crash.
One could also argue that… starting Aguero and Jesus from the bench also removed some degree of their fear-factor from the minds of Chelsea defenders… Jesus is sleek and Aguero is unpredictable, but I agree not starting any of the duo of Rodri/Fernandinho may have also played into Chelsea hands as Ngolo ran at Man City defence successively unchallenged a few times causing real panic I am sure, to most Man City fans… I want to also believe, somehow intelligently playing De Bruyne out of the game in good time during the second half also messed up Pep’s poise and ensure Man City became psychologically disheveled… it was akin to waht Italy did to Nigeria in USA ’94 playing Amokachi and Anmuneke out with intelligent fouls… Man City still did well possession-wise but it was toothless all in all without cutting edge…
You guys should stop blaming pep. The fact is that, Pep has no answer to Chelsea die hard spirit yesterday. Didn’t Fernandinho and Rodri played in that FA Cup semifinal against Chelsea? What happened in that match? Chelsea rendered those midfielders useless. Guy, the best team won in that match. Man City tried all they could
Was it that bad for Mancity in the FA cup semi final that they struggled to hit a shot on target and had Zero clear-cut chances for the whole 90 mins like they struggled in the UCL final….? No. City had a far better performance in the FA cup semis than the UCL finals.
Was it that easy for chelsea in the FA cup finals that they could dominate city, create 3 clear cut chances and had 3 shots on target despite being the defensive minded team…? No. Chelsea practically packed the bus for majority of the FA cup semis unlike in the UCL finals when they took the game to city and even dominated them in the midfield in the 1st half. I didnt even see debruyne until when he was being subbed off. Sterling was completely pocketed and ineffective the whole game. That was how dominant Chelsea was.
Has Pep ever played a game without a DM and a ST all through his career..? No. So why experiment with a UCL Final. It would have been better he didn’t over tweak his team and lost rather than line up such a disastrously experimental formation in a UCL final when all his players were fit. Infact it would have been better if he was too conservative and played 2 DMs and lost rather than too over ambitious and disrespectful by not featuring a DM and a ST and still lost. City played 6 attacking midfielders and still got dominated by chelsea in the 1st half….they had nobody to recover balls for them, whereas chelsea had Jorginho and Kante (2-in-1), making potentially 3 ball winners. It just doesnt make sense. It was when Fernandinho and Gabriel Jesus came on city began to boss Chelsea and had their only shot on target the whole game.
If we no blame Gaudiola, who make we blame…?! He practically gave the game to chelsea. They didnt even have to sweat as much as they did in the FA cup semis. Chelsea fans will attest to that.
Guardiola bungled it, from a tactical standpoint. The big mistakes:
1) Not starting a true center forward against 3 Chelsea center backs. Playing Kevin DeBruyne as a false nine was a tactical blunder. Yes, he also had Sterling on the left and Mahrez on the right, and Foden, Gundogan and Bernardo Silva running in from the midfield, but a point man could have made a big difference. He should have started Ferran Torres or Aguero.
2) Playing Gundogan in the holding role! That should have been Rodri or Fernadinho. As a result, the Man City back four did not have adequate cover. Kante was always going to dominate against Foden, Gundogan and Bernardo Silva. A Rodri or Fernandinho would have given him more of a challenge.
The false nine system is a difficult system to implement, because you need a special type of player to play the false nine role, usually a fast, skillful, goal-scoring AM, who can hold the ball, dictate play and be the focal point of the attack, the person the wingers and the midfielders collaborate with. Barcelona could pull it off under Pep because they had Messi. Another player who can play this role is Joao Felix of Athletico Madrid.
Additionally, the false nine needs plenty of support, mainly midfielders making runs from deep into the box. It’s a tough system to implement, which is why most teams stick with the old, tried and tested system of playing a true number 9, someone to lead the line and be a presence in the box.
Why Pep chose to gamble like this in a Champions League final is a question only Pep can answer. He had no true number 9, and no true DM in his line up. It was risky and reckless, and he paid the ultimate price.
You said Kante dominated against Man City midfielders that Fernandinho or Rodri would have been a better option. Well , you might be right and on the other hand, it might even be worst if the two had played. Rem, this same Kante dominated against Real Madrid Superb Midfielders that have Modric, Caseimero and Kros. Also rem, Fernandinho played against Chelsea when Man City was beaten last time out .
No doubt Kante is a beast, but Real Madrid players are all coming back from injury, hazard,Kroos,Ramos,carvajal even varane, all just coming from injury, this not to take anything from Chelsea for the win, but am sure a complete fully fit RM and a fully fit Chelsea would have bring us a different result, bravo they won and we move.
… But one cannot outrightly say Pep’s tactics were flatly ineffective because Chelsea scored against the run of play and the game was close. It’s just a bad day at the shop for Man City…
I agree with you Jimmy. Peps tactics were actually effective because they still had more possession, but playing without a recognized DM in the UCL final is totally uncalled for. Not against a perennial defensive team like Chelsea that are disciplined and organized with swift counter attacking philosophy and with N’GOLO KANTE in the middle Pep will always lose in that scenario.
So you really think a tactic that produced zero shots on target the whole first half and only 1 shot on target, 2 shots off target, Zero goals and Zero clear cut chances overall, from a Guadiola coached team, while conceding 2 on target, 5 off target, 1 goal and 3 clear cut chances against an ultra-defensive team was effective. Wow….so much for effectiveness. I’ll rather allow my opponents be that kind of ‘effective’ while I do the more effective job of creating clear-cut chances and hitting shots at them
Drey. I felt maybe if he had started Fernandinho or Rodri and move Gundogan up would’ve been the perfect tactical option. The game was won by the team that was most mentally ready and motivated because they’ve beating City twice before. Chelsea had the belief that they can beat them and they were able to stop them everywhere on the pitch
@Dr.Drey… Remember the Ruediger block from Fodin’s attempt? The quality of Chelsea dedefence… Ruediger, Azpi, Reece and a screening Ngolo will always be tough anyday… It’s not that Man City did not want to aim good shots on target or create clear-cut chances… they were just forced to be limited and snuffed…
Blocked-shots isnt a shot on target or off target. Blocked shots are recorded as blocked shots. Chelsea also recorded blocked shots apart from the ones directed towards goal.
When you play 6 attacking midfielders, zero ST, zero DM against 3 CBs (Azpi, Rudiger, Thiago/Christainsen), 2 WBs (James and Chilwell) and 2 DMs (jorginho and Kante, with kante being a 2-in-1), you have already set yourself up for failure. You will never smell the goal posts. All these 7 guys are ball winners, they win the ball and look for the counter……you on the other hand do not have a DM to cover your 4 man defence, so you have 3 fast attack minded players running at your defence…..one succesful take-on and it becomes a 3-0n-3. And that’s exactly what happened……Mount’s pass successfully took out 2 of the 4 defenders and then it became a 2-on-2…..bam…GOAL. The Chelsea defense was just comfortable all through the period Pep’s experiment lasted. Contrast with when G.Jesus and Aguero came on. The presence of those 2 alone put chelsea’s defence in disarray several times within a short period. They struggled to cope on almost all the occasions when the ball got to the feet of either of the 2.
Pep should go and prepare for next year. He has arrogantly bungled this one. Not taking any credit away from Tuchel and Chelsea. They are deserving champions.
… It was just a game of wits and nerves. If Man City had carried the day against Chelsea everyone will be singing the praises of Pep as a tactic wizard. It was just a bad day at the shop… Seeing the lineup below, you will know it was a conservative/patient approach winning against a more daring/aggressive one… It could have gone either way but a Catenaccio based approach with a deadly counter attacking prong will always keep the fortress well-guarded against any formidable foe on a good day…
https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/match/2029498–man-city-vs-chelsea/lineups/?iv=true