Chelsea won the Champions League only for the second time after a dramatic 1-0 win over Manchester City in the final in Porto on Saturday, ending Pep Guardiola's hopes of winning the trophy for the third time. Three minutes before halftime, Havertz rounded Ederson to score at the Estadio do Dragao, and the Chelsea players rushed to join him in celebrating. When they beat City in the FA Cup semi-finals in April, they halted City's chances of a domestic treble and delayed their title celebrations with a win in Manchester. After being taken over by Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi, City had to wait 13 years to reach the Champions League final. They have now lost in their first appearance at this stage for the ninth time in a row. Manchester City, the Premier League champions, were the clear favourites heading into the final, but they had a disastrous night in Porto.
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Erling Haaland ended the Champions League season as the top scorer of the competition with 10 goals, followed by Kylian Mbappe (8 goals) and Alvaro Morata (6 goals). Juventus right-back Juan Cuadrado led the assists chart with 6 assists, followed by Kimmich (4) and Di Maria (4). Lionel Messi led the dribbling chart with 4.8 dribbles per game followed by Mbappe and Neymar. UCL-winning goalkeeper Edouard Mendy led the clean sheets chart with 9 clean sheets, followed by Ederson (7) and Agustin Marchesin (5). Many players impressed and we’ve brought you the Champions League team of the Season. The formation is a bit weird and an unbalanced 4-2-1-3, but the intention was to pick the players who have been most impressive in the recently concluded Champions League.
Goalkeeper - Edouard Mendy
Edouard Mendy is the first African goalkeeper to play in a UEFA Champions League final and the first since Bruce Grobbelaar in the old European Cup final in 1985. He played a total of 12 Champions League games this season and kept a clean sheet in 9 of them (most). He also managed 2.6 saves per game in the UCL. His impressive performances throughout the season have earned him a place in the UCL team of the season.
Defenders - Juan Cuadrado, Ruben Dias, Marquinhos, Joao Cancelo
Juan Cuadrado has been phenomenal for Juventus this season, mostly playing as a right wing-back. He has managed the most assists in the UCL (6). He also managed 4.2 key passes per game (most in UCL) and 1.8 dribbles per game with 55% efficiency. He is our preference for the right-back position.
Ruben Dias and Marquinhos have been the best defenders in the Champions League this season. Ruben Dias transformed a struggling Manchester City defence and turned them into title contenders again. He has managed 77.5 accurate passes per game in the UCL (2nd most after Kroos) with a 94.4% success rate. Marquinhos is a versatile player, who can play as a defender as well as a midfielder. He managed a passing accuracy of 88.9% in the UCL this season and has also scored three goals.
While many call Cancelo a makeshift left-back but the Portuguese full-back has been phenomenal on the left flank. He has managed 1.9 dribbles per game with 54.8% efficiency. He was also rock-solid defensively for the Citizens and had 1.9 successful tackles per game.
Defensive Midfielders - Joshua Kimmich, N’Golo Kante
Bayern’s versatile star Kimmich has been phenomenal once again for them. He has managed 4 assists and scored a goal in UCL. He also provided 3.6 key passes per game and had a passing success rate of 87.8%.
Kante has been the best midfielder in the Champions League this season. He has just one goal contribution but he has covered that with his defending and work rate. He managed 0.8 tackles per game and 1.1 interceptions per game in the UCL. N'Golo Kante was the epitome of everything. That's his thing, after all. This was Kante's Champions League final, not only because of his Chelsea performance but also because of how his performance compared with Manchester City's. He won the MOTM in the final for his performance.
Attacking Midfielder - Phil Foden
The 21-year-old youngster was phenomenal in the UCL campaign this season despite the final loss. Ha had an impressive three goals and three assists this season and he definitely deserves a place in the TOTS. He managed 2 dribbles per game and 1.4 key passes per game. He is surely a future superstar in making.
Forwards - Riyad Mahrez, Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe
When it comes to forwards, it should come as no surprise that we can knock a few of these positions out of the park rather swiftly. After all, we'll be looking for the player who scores the most goals or has the most goal contributions.
That, of course, will be Erling Haaland, who has scored 10 goals in only 8 games. He is at or near the top of practically every shooting category for which Opta collects data. He also bagged two assists this season in UCL. He helped BVB reach the Quarter-finals of the tournament before being eliminated by Manchester City.
If Haaland is an obvious choice, Mbappe is another, who, like the Norwegian, has been a consistent presence in the shooting categories stated above. At just 22 years old, his magnificent hat-trick in a 4-1 win over Barcelona cemented his status as one of Europe's top players.
The final right-wing spot comes down to Riyad Mahrez of Manchester City. Mahrez has scored four goals and bagged 2 assists this season in the Champions League. Mahrez, in particular, is third in the league for open play opportunities generated, and he shone in the semifinal win over Paris Saint-Germain.
