Porto is for Manchester City the gateway to another realm, a dimension that is host to the great institutions of the game.
The Champions League final against Chelsea is framed entirely around City’s quest to move among the grand houses of European football, to shed the inferiority complex that has held them back since the petrodollars rolled into east Manchester more than a decade ago.
Ideally City would be smashing Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich to smithereens in the Estadio do Dragao to rubber stamp their elevation with the scalp of an historic power. Instead Chelsea bring them back to the domestic arena, robbing the fixture of its exotica and introducing the prospect of an ambush against a familiar foe.
Two of City’s Champions League defeats in the past three years came at the hands of domestic rivals, Liverpool and Spurs. They were ties City were expected to win, but somehow got sucked into the drama of the local dispute despite the altered European context.
City carry forward, too, the memory of recent defeats to Chelsea, twice in the space of three weeks in April and early May, once in the FA Cup at Wembley and again at the Etihad in the league. At least here they meet on foreign turf, which ought to dilute the local flavour a little if not the intensity.
Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel fits well into the spoiler category, a devotee of the Pep Guardiola method, a passionate figure flush with the same mania for detail and micro-management. Guardiola is unlikely to outwit his disciple or surprise him. It will come down to the quality of the players and their ability to execute. And, as always, providence.
It would not surprise were this contest to develop the patterns and character of the Europa League final in Gdansk with Chelsea, cast in the role of Villarreal, executing a plan to contain and smother while striking like a cobra. On the other hand Tuchel might well shock by being more expansive, noting how Liverpool in peak Jurgen Klopp mode squeeze City high up the pitch, disrupting rhythm by denying them the oxygen of controlled possession.
It would help, of course, if Tuchel had Mo, Sadio and Bobby, atop his Xmas tree instead of misfiring Teutons Timo Werner and Kai Havertz plus A.N. Other. Guardiola loves to surprise with his selections. Tinkering is the affordable consequence of squad depth that Tuchel does not have.
Raheem Sterling advances the view that the biggest threat to City is themselves. That is an expression of unbreakable confidence and belief. Guardiola’s issue has not been winning finals – he rides into Porto town boasting a record of 7 and 0 – but failing to get there at well-endowed super clubs.
However, Europe’s most prestigious competition does not always confer victory on the continent’s best team. The idea that Chelsea might get anywhere near a fixture of this magnitude in January was unthinkable. City used the visit to Stamford Bridge in the first week of the year to restate their credentials after a strangely passive opening to the season.
City were imperious, smashing three goals in 16 first-half minutes to leave Frank Lampard in a state of anomie, his credibility and sense of place ebbing away in a painful excoriation, whilst restoring the feeling that none could touch them once they engaged that extra gear.
Yet here Chelsea are, led by a coach who has the diabolical look of the iconoclast about him whenever he detonates on the touchline. Tuchel will have digested the lessons of the FA Cup final defeat to Leicester, where Chelsea paid the price of an overly cautious approach. Then Chelsea were the team expected to win. Here they are in the Leicester slot, unburdened in that regard.
Nevertheless you sense everything Tuchel tries must come off if Chelsea are to succeed. Much rests on the ability of Mason Mount to hit the top notes, an incredible ask of one so callow on an occasion such as this; on Toni Rudiger and Thiago Silva excelling yet again in defence; on Werner to find the onion bag from an onside position; on Tuchel to be brave in his selection, starting with Christian Pulisic, per chance, who ran through Real Madrid.
Even if it comes to penalties and the requirement of goalkeepers to deliver, you would back Ederson to crack one in from the spot for City and, more importantly, to observe the fundamentals of the day job by saving a couple. Chelsea, like Manchester United in Gdansk, are not comforted in quite the same way.
Both teams are living a dream that fate in a former universe had not ordained for them. Having arrived at a station commensurate with the fabulous wealth that propels them, they represent a vision of the game at odds with old mores. This is their time, even if it has taken City a little longer to reconcile the present with an inauspicious past.
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