Thomas Tuchel is buzzing as much as the traveling Chelsea faithful, as expected, after winning the UEFA Champions League 1-0 over Manchester City on Saturday in Portugal.
“To share it with everybody is incredible,” Tuchel said after the game. “What a fight. What a title.”
Imagine how it feels to be Tuchel, who just over nine months ago — 279 days — was lamenting a 1-0 Paris Saint-Germain loss to Bayern Munich in the UCL Final.
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Six months ago, to the day, he was fired by PSG. He was on the job market for all of a month.
Now, he’s a European Cup winner.
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“We were determined to win this,” Tuchel said. “We wanted to be the stone in their shoe for Man City. We encouraged everybody to step up. We had good possession, created some dangerous counterattacks and some opportunities.”
Tuchel revealed that he just met Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich for the first time, on the field after winning the match, joking that he asked for a new contract as it “can only get worse” moving forward. Abramovich is not currently allowed on English soil due to complications with his visa.
As for what’s next for the Blues, Tuchel does not think it “can only get worse.”
“Obviously we have a strong bond, a group who can really defend which is a huge part of football and have answers on all questions in the game. The level is set from us, once celebrations are over we have digested this experience, it is the moment to evolve and to use it.”
Chelsea will be expected to compete for trophies on all fronts next season, and Tuchel is the latest in a long line of Chelsea managers to have to build on somewhat-unexpected success.
It will be very interesting to see what he does in the transfer market, and how much trust he’s won from his boss.
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Tuchel on UCL win: Chelsea ‘the stone in the shoe for Man City’ originally appeared on NBCSports.com