Champions League final: where the game could be won and lost | Jonathan Wilson

Manchester City’s high defensive line, Chelsea’s wing-back issues and other factors to look out for in Porto

The problem historically for Pep Guardiola sides in Europe has been the high line that he operates, which means that if the press goes awry, his teams can be vulnerable to balls in behind them – as happened for Bayern against Real Madrid in 2014 and against Barcelona in 2015, and for City against Monaco in 2017, Liverpool in 2018 and Lyon last year. It was a problem for City domestically last season – notably against Norwich, Wolves, Manchester United and in the defeat at Chelsea that handed Liverpool the title – and even early in this campaign, in the 5-2 home defeat to Leicester and the reverse at Tottenham. Guardiola’s great success from December has been adjusting the balance of the press to combat a potential vulnerability that is inevitable with his approach, but United exposed City in that way and so, most pertinently, did Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final in which Timo Werner’s runs from deep were a persistent source of menace. Werner was also a threat in Chelsea’s league victory over City, although the lessons of that game were probably less relevant given it was a much-weakened City selection.

Related: Thomas Tuchel: inside the mind of an obsessive with the winning touch

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