The Story of Chelsea’s 2021 Champions League Triumph

It’s not every day your team wins the most-coveted prize in professional football, but that’s what happened last month. To say I had an absolute banger that weekend is an understatement. Chelsea beat Manchester City 1–0 in the Champions League final on the 29th of May to win the competition for the second time in their history. I’ve been on cloud nine since then, rewatching the highlights and celebrations on repeat. But it has also been a strange feeling. As I watched our club’s captain, Cesar Azpilicueta, lift the trophy that night, I wondered how I would remember it in years to come. More specifically, I wondered how I might remember it differently compared to the first time we won the trophy in 2012. Therefore, I thought it might be fun to commemorate the win with a blog post; something that tells the unique story of the 2020–2021 campaign and the way I feel about it as a fan.

Comparisons to 2012 felt inevitable as soon as we beat Atlético Madrid in the Round of 16. Not because of the games themselves, but because we had just changed our head coach and found ourselves on a winning run. Much the same as when Roberto Di Matteo replaced André Villas-Boas, when Thomas Tuchel arrived we were reborn as a defensive-oriented team. Both the 2011–2012 and the 2020–2021 seasons looked to be write-offs- but for different reasons. Both teams had suffered a…