WE’LL KEEP OUR HEADS
Rodri sure Tuchel’s Blues won’t win the mind games
MANCHESTER CITY star Rodri insists Champions League rivals Chelsea have not got inside their heads.
The Blues have had the last laugh on Pep Guardiola’s men not once but twice in recent weeks since Thomas Tuchel arrived at Stamford Bridge.
Tuchel has got the better of Guardiola after dumping his side out of the FA Cup semi-finals, before masterminding a stunning Premier League win at the Etihad.
The German is now plotting a hat-trick of wins – and what would be the greatest one of all – ahead of the all-english final in the Estadio do Dragao, Porto, on Saturday.
Few managers get the better of Guardiola (right), but the Spanish genius is now in danger of becoming Tuchel’s whipping boy.
The wins could give Tuchel’s Blues the mental advantage but Rodri is convinced this isn’t the case.
“We lost the semi-final of the FA Cup and in the Premier League, but we don’t think much about that,” he said.
“We have been an unbelievable team this season and we have won the Carabao Cup and Premier League.
“We are strong with very good players. We just have to keep it the same way. We don’t have to be crazy, being like, ‘Oh, this is Chelsea’. We have to do our own game.”
Guardiola has been striving to win club football’s biggest prize again since arriving at the Etihad in 2016, while Tuchel has been in charge of the Blues less than five months.
Rodri admits losing would hit the dressing room hard, while winning could help them go on to establish a European dynasty like Real Madrid, Ajax and Barcelona have in the past.
He said: “Winning would be great for us in the sense that we have the experience for the next trophies.
“We will have that experience and that is something very important in this tournament. If when you win this kind of Champions League or Premier League, you are better when it comes to trying to achieve another one because you know what you have to do.”
Rodri has been left sweating on his place in Guardiola’s starting lineup, but is determined to enjoy the occasion whatever happens, adding: “I just work every day to play these types of games. And the next games.
“It’s the coach’s decision. I learn from football that what is not in your hands, you cannot control. I can only control the way I train, the way I play and then the coach decides.
“Of course I would like to play – all the players would like to play – but we are a team and we all win and we all lose together.
“If I play, then good. If I don’t, I want to lift the trophy and support my team-mates.”