Manchester City 2021

Coach: Pep Guardiola

Pep Guardiola's Manchester City reached their first-ever Champions League final in 2021, losing 1-0 to Chelsea in an all-English final held in Porto due to pandemic-related travel restrictions, with Kai Havertz's first-half goal proving the difference in a match City struggled to break down against Thomas Tuchel's well-organised defensive shape. The squad had been reshaped that season around a fluid, often striker-less system, with Kevin De Bruyne and İlkay Gündoğan interchanging in advanced midfield positions and Rodri providing defensive cover, having already won the Premier League and League Cup that season in another dominant domestic campaign under Guardiola. The final defeat added to a recurring narrative around City's inability, despite years of financial investment since the 2008 takeover by Abu Dhabi-backed ownership, to convert their overwhelming domestic superiority into the Champions League title that had become the explicit target of the club's project. That frustration would only be resolved two years later, but this squad's run to the final — including eliminating Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain along the way — proved City could compete with anyone in Europe on a given night.