Manchester City star says ‘it was tough’ congratulating Chelsea players after UCL final loss

Kyle Walker reveals he did not like congratulating Chelsea after losing to Chelsea in Champions League final

Kyle Walker discussed how he did not like congratulating Chelsea players after they lost the 2020–21 Champions League final and that the experience will benefit Manchester City when they play Inter Milan in Istanbul.

The Blues defeated City 1-0, and Kai Havertz’s goal was enough for them to win their second Champions League under Thomas Tuchel.

Pep Guardiola’s team struggled to make an impact despite entering the game as favourites and fell short of scoring. They oddly started the game without a defensive midfielder – a tactic which may have contributed to their loss that day.

N’Golo Kante, though, was the primary architect who lessened the threat of attack from the city despite Chelsea’s only goal. The tireless Frenchman, playing in a box-to-box role, rendered Manchester City ineffective in attack – a present the Cityzens could have done with themselves.

Speaking before the game against Inter Milan on Saturday night in the Champions League final, (h/t Daily Mail) the former Tottenham Hotspur right-back recalled his 2020–21 Champions League final and claimed:

”Now when you walk out, you know you’ve been here before; you’ve experienced these things before. It was hard seeing all the Chelsea boys there,’ Walker added. ‘You say congratulations to them because they are your team-mates now, but it was tough. It’s part of your career that everything is not always going to go swimmingly well.”

After the turbulent period we had under Frank Lampard, winning the second Champions League was one of the best experiences in the club’s history. It is a shame that we have fallen so sharply from those days in such a short period of time.

When Tuchel was hired in January 2021, the club’s fortunes were drastically reversed. His approach rapidly resonated with the players, and we went from being an underconfident team to a competitive club after defeating elite teams like Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid in the knockout stage and Manchester City in the final.

More Chelsea News:

• Chelsea to transfer-list Juventus target Christian Pulisic for the third window in a row
• Real Madrid have withdrawn from signing Chelsea star Kai Havertz
• Brighton Hove & Albion weighing offering another bid to sign Chelsea starlet Levi Colwill

Hopefully, Mauricio Pochettino can create a similar impact – a manager who reached the UCL final with Tottenham Hotspur in 2019. Chelsea fans would surely want Inter Milan to win – seeing Romelu Lukaku get a medal while being on our books is a plus.

But it will maintain the fact that the Blues were the last English team to lift ‘Big Ears’.