Pupil Thomas Tuchel beats master Pep Guardiola

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel with his wife and kids after the Champions League final in Porto on Saturday

Five months after being sacked by PSG, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel lifted the Champions League, beating master tactician Pep Guardiola once more.

Mid-season appointment

A 1-0 win in Porto rounded off a rollercoaster year for the German, who was handed Chelsea’s reins less than a month after losing his job in Paris. Chelsea were ninth in the Premiership table then with owner Roman Abramovich seeing little return on his GBP 220 million outlay on new players under Frank Lampard. In fact, Tuchel had never met the Russian billionaire until Saturday.

Unlike Guardiola, Tuchel did not have a glittering playing career. Knee injuries forced him to retire at 25 and take up a job as a waiter, while he began his coaching career in Stuttgart’s youth ranks. From afar he watched as Guardiola won 14 trophies in four years at Barcelona before joining him in Germany, where they battled for Bundesliga supremacy in-charge of Borussia Dortmund and Bayern.

During their first meeting, the two talked long into the night using glasses and salt and pepper shakers to mimic formations. “I was a huge admirer of Pep when he was a player and then when he became a coach it was like learning on the job for me,” Tuchel said recently.

Bundesliga rivalry

Tuchel did not win any of the first five clashes between the pair during his time at Mainz and Dortmund, but the pupil has now outfoxed the master thrice in the last six weeks.

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