CHELSEA manager Thomas Tuchel revealed his ‘lucky shoes’ inspired his side’s Champions League final victory over Manchester City.
The Blues beat the Premier League champions 1-0 to lift the trophy for the second time in their history thanks to a first half strike from Kai Havertz.
The win comes 12 months after Tuchel watched his Paris Saint-Germain side lose in the final to Bayern Munich.
On that occasion, he forgot to wear a pair of shoes gifted to him by the president of the French giants.
But he was not going to let the opportunity pass him by again.
Speaking after the match, he said: “My family is here, my parents are here. My grandad who does not live anymore, it is very emotional.
“I could not have ever imagined as a young coach that I could touch this cup and now we played two finals and today we won.
“It starts with my father and mother who drove me to every football training. My wife supported me when I was in fifth division as a coach with 20 spectators.
“We like to be the underdogs. It is the truth they were the favourites, there is a big gap between us and them in the league. We accepted it.
“We prepared that we had to suffer but we wanted to be the stone in the shoe and be there constantly.
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“I had these shoes in Paris and I made a promise that we will wear these shoes when we reach the Champions League final.
“They were a present from the president at PSG and I promised my staff I would wear them in the final and I did not wear them so we lost and I wore them today and they worked.”
Tuchel’s ‘lucky shoes’ revelation comes just a few days after Chelsea decided to wear their current home shirt instead of next season’s strip.
The decision followed back-to-back defeats for Chelsea while wearing their new kit in the FA Cup final and Women’s Champions League final.
Tuchel took over from Frank Lampard at the end of January and has turned the team’s fortunes around in a short period of time.
In the Premier League they have gone from mid-table obscurity to finishing fourth.
They suffered disappointment in the FA Cup final when they were beaten by Leicester.
But the German coach has now finished the season in the best way possible by leading the club to Champions League glory.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
