Completing a double sweep

With our victory in Portugal, Chelsea have become the first team to win all three of Europe’s major club competitions twice following our maiden Champions League triumph in 2012 and victories in the Europa League in 2013 and 2019 and Cup Winners’ Cup in 1971 and 1998.

It could be a record we hold for some time as the other four clubs to complete a clean sweep of European trophies – Bayern Munich, Juventus, Ajax and Manchester United – only won the Cup Winners’ Cup once each before the competition was ended in 1999.

However, Barcelona and AC Milan could still match our record if they manage to win the Europa League twice.

A clean record

Edouard Mendy completed an amazing debut campaign in the Champions League by matching a competition record with his ninth clean sheet in 12 games.

In shutting out Manchester City, the Senegal international emulated the feats of Santiago Canizares for Valencia in 2000/01 and Keylor Navas for Real Madrid in 2015/16.

Mendy, who conceded only three goals in our campaign, also became the second Senegalese player after Sadio Mane in 2019 to play for a Champions League-winning side.

America’s first

Christian Pulisic became the first American to play in a Champions League final when he came on to replace Timo Werner midway through the second half.

The United States international, who went close to extending our lead against City, is only the second American to win the venerable trophy after Jovan Kirovski, who was in the victorious Borussia Dortmund side in 1997 but did not play in the final against Juventus.

Extending Pep’s drought

Pep Guardiola may be one of the best managers in football after leading Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City to nine domestic league titles in the past 13 years but the Spaniard has not lifted the Champions League trophy for 10 years since Barca’s victory over Manchester United in the 2011 final.

Chelsea began that drought when we stunned the Spanish side in the 2012 semi-finals and we ensured it will extend to over a decade after our third win in the past six weeks against City in three different competitions.

It was only the second major cup final defeat for Guardiola, whose managerial resume includes two Champions Leagues and two Copa del Reys with Barcelona, two German Cups with Bayern and an FA Cup and four League Cups with City. His only previous defeat in a major cup final was a 1-0 loss to Real Madrid in the 2011 Copa Del Rey.

Changes pay off

Our Champions League victory this year marks the fourth time we have won a European club competition following a mid-season managerial change after Thomas Tuchel was brought in to replace Frank Lampard in January.

In 1998, we lifted the Cup Winners’ Cup under Gianluca Vialli after he took over from Ruud Gullit and Roberto Di Matteo stepped in for Andre Villas-Boas during our 2011/12 Champions League campaign and was then replaced himself during the next season by Rafael Benitez, who led us to success in the Europa League in 2013.

We also reached the Champions League final in 2008 after Avram Grant took over from Jose Mourinho.