Guardiola vs Tuchel final records, head-to-head stats and more intriguing alternative facts as Champions League final clash looms

Manchester City and Chelsea face off for this year’s Champions League crown in the third all-English final since the European Cup’s inception in 1955.

City enter the game as slight favourites, but how does Pep Guardiola's record in finals compare with Thomas Tuchel's? How have they fared against each other in previous managerial meetings? Who has the better record at Porto's Estadio do Dragao?

Here we explore some of the key stats and head-to-head records ahead of the showpiece, which will be shown exclusively live on BT Sport on Saturday 29 May.

Guardiola v Tuchel: Head to head record

Guardiola and Tuchel are no strangers to each other in the dugout thanks to their stints in the Bundesliga, with Tuchel managing both Mainz and Borussia Dortmund against Guardiola’s Bayern Munich between 2013 and 2016.

Tuchel failed to pick up a single point against Guardiola while in charge of Mainz, with the pair facing each other twice in the 2013-14 season.

Bayern ran out 4-1 winners at home in October before a 2-0 away victory in March meant the Bavarians needed just one more win to secure the Bundesliga title in Guardiola's first season at the helm, a feat they duly achieved with seven games to spare against Hertha Berlin.

When Tuchel replaced Liverpool-bound Jurgen Klopp at Dortmund for the 2015/16 season, things initially didn’t get much better for the German.

Bayern thrashed Dortmund 5-1 at the Allianz Arena, with Robert Lewandowski and Mario Götze coming back to haunt their old side with three of the five goals.

However, Tuchel managed to claim his first point against Guardiola later that season in a tightly contested 0-0 draw at the Westfalenstadion. They faced each other once more before the end of the campaign in the DFB-Pokal final, with Bayern Munich winning on penalties after another goalless affair.

With Guardiola departing for Manchester City in the summer of 2016, their next meeting would have to wait until Tuchel arrived in England earlier this year as Frank Lampard's successor at Chelsea.

City and Chelsea were paired together in the FA Cup semi-finals in April and Tuchel finally chalked up his first win over Guardiola as Hakim Ziyech's second-half strike gave the Blues a sweet triumph.

Tuchel then quickly followed up that success with an impressive 2-1 victory at the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League earlier this month, with Marcos Alonso's late strike dramatically sealing a deserved three points for Chelsea.

Now, of course, comes their most significant meeting of all.

And while Guardiola has had the better of the rivalry, winning four and drawing one of their seven encounters, that recent pair of victories for Tuchel means there’s every reason for both managers to be confident going into their Champions League final showdown.

Guardiola v Tuchel: Record in finals

Guardiola has a staggeringly impressive record in major finals.

He has triumphed in 14 out of 15 attempts with a final win percentage of 93.3% for Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Man City.

While his teams were frequently the favourites, this remarkable record demonstrates his ability to get over the line in cup competitions and since he has arrived in England he has not lost a major final.

His only reverse came ten years ago while in charge of Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final against arch-rivals Real Madrid, courtesy of a Cristiano Ronaldo header in extra-time.

Incredibly, Guardiola-led teams went just under nine years without conceding in major finals between 2011 and 2020, before Mbwana Samatta scored for Aston Villa in a Carabao Cup final that City won 2-1.

Tuchel, meanwhile, has accrued a mixed bag of results in his seven major finals as a manager so far, winning three.

His first attempt was the DFB-Pokal shootout defeat against Guardiola's Bayern in 2016, but he got over that loss quickly by winning the final of the same competition 12 months later, beating Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 in his last game in charge of Dortmund.

Next came the 2019 Coupe de France final, which saw his PSG side face Rennes. After a 2-2 draw in an entertaining affair that also included a red card for Kylian Mbappe, Rennes went on to triumph on penalties.

It was then a case of déjà vu as Tuchel returned to the Coupe de France final the following year and won by a one-goal margin to extinguish the penalty shootout heartbreak of the previous campaign. A solitary first-half strike by Neymar proved enough to see off ten-man Saint-Etienne.

A week later, the German got his hands on the Coupe de la Ligue trophy as PSG saw off Lyon 6-5 on penalties after extra-time following a goalless draw, in the process completing a domestic treble.

Perhaps most significantly, Tuchel lost his only Champions League final to date in 2020 as his PSG side, gunning for an unprecedented quadruple, were beaten 1-0 by Bayern Munich in Lisbon thanks to a Kingsley Coman header.

However, with his knack of winning finals after a defeat the previous year, Chelsea will be praying that this formula can be replicated once more in Porto.

That would more than make up for the disappointment of Tuchel's most recent final result - a 1-0 defeat to Leicester City in the FA Cup final earlier this month.

Records at the venue

Both teams are familiar with Porto's Estádio do Dragão, with City having played there twice before and Chelsea doing likewise on five separate occasions.

Chelsea's most recent visit was just last month as they beat Porto 2-0 in their quarter-final first leg, while City also travelled there in this year's competition - a 0-0 draw with the Portuguese giants which secured top spot in their group.

City won on their first and only other appearance at the stadium back in the 2011/12 season, defeating Porto 2-1 in the last 32 of the Europa League after an early exit from that year’s Champions League.

Chelsea had mixed results on this ground prior to their recent success. They lost to Porto 2-1 in the 2004/05 Champions League group stages, while two years later they were held to a 1-1 draw in the last 16 before progressing at Stamford Bridge.

They got their first win at the Dragão in the group stage of the 2009/10 season thanks to a Nicolas Anelka winner, before losing 2-1 in their next fixture there in the 2015/16 group stage. 

Man City v Chelsea: Head-to-head record

Manchester City and Chelsea have only faced each other once in a European tie before - in the semi-finals of the 1970/71 European Cup Winners' Cup.

Chelsea won 1-0 in both the home and away legs against the Citizens, who at the time were the holders of the competition. 

The Blues went on to play Real Madrid in the final and after the match finished 1-1 at the end of extra-time, the Londoners won a replay two days later, with the legendary Peter Osgood scoring what proved to be the decisive goal, having also notched in the initial game.

The two teams have already played each other three times this season. City triumphed 3-1 in January, with goals from Ilkay Gundogan, Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne consigning a Frank Lampard-led Chelsea to a fifth league defeat of the season.

However, Chelsea, under Tuchel's steadying hand, have had the better of the last two meetings.

Overall, they have played each other 126 times in all competitions, with Chelsea winning 68, City 58 and 40 games drawn.

Did you know?

·         City and Chelsea have only conceded four goals each in this year’s Champions League campaign, with neither side conceding more than one in a game the entire campaign.

·         This is the seventh time that two clubs from the same nation have competed in the European Cup Final and it is the third all-English final, after Manchester United's shootout win over Chelsea in 2008 and Liverpool's 2-0 victory against Tottenham in 2019.

·         This is Chelsea’s third Champions League final (after 2008 and 2012). They have parted ways with their manager mid-season on all three occasions.

·         This is Man City’s first appearance in the Champions League final but second European final. They were victorious against Górnik Zabrze in the 1969/70 European Cup Winners' Cup final, winning 2-1.

·         Man City are the ninth English team to feature in a European Cup final after Liverpool, Manchester United, Leeds, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham.

·         In the last three seasons there has been a newcomer to the Champions League final: Tottenham in 2019, PSG in 2020 and now City this year.