Kevin De Bruyne

PORTO, Portugal — Manchester City face Chelsea in the Champions League final on Saturday. Here are five key tactical battles to watch out for.

Manchester City vs. Chelsea — Champions League Final Preview

WILL CHELSEA'S WING-BACKS BE ABLE TO ATTACK?

Thomas Tuchel's system at Chelsea has been designed to give licence to the wing backs to attack, whether it be Cesar Azpilicueta or Reece James on the right and Ben Chilwell or Marcos Alonso on the left, the German has players who are effective in transition and provide width.

BRUSSELS - Belgium’s Axel Witsel was included in the squad for next month’s European Championship with coach Roberto Martínez gambling the influential midfielder will be fit in time for the tournament.

Witsel, 32, had surgery on an Achilles tendon injury suffered with Borussia Dortmund in January and has not played since but has been a key part of Belgium's lineup, winning the last of his 110 caps against England last November.

“Witsel is recovering well and working really hard to be completely fit and is ahead of his recovery schedule," Martínez told reporters on Monday.

Whenever Manchester United did not win the Premier League in the glory years of Alex Ferguson, their fans took comfort in teasing their rivals by saying the title was merely out on loan.

Manchester City fans trotted out the same line when Liverpool steamrollered their way to the title last season to end City's reign as kings of England, but even the most blinkered Sky Blue feared a power shift had occurred.

The 19th overall meeting between Mauricio Pochettino and Pep Guardiola ended in favor of the Catalan maestro, giving him 11 wins, five draws and only three defeats after Manchester City produced a rousing comeback against PSG on Wednesday to take a 2-1 lead back to the Etihad in the Champions League semifinals.  

It looked like PSG was cruising. The first half went just about as well as Mauricio Pochettino could have hoped, with PSG leading by a goal, looking dangerous whenever it attacked and rarely troubled by Manchester City. One wonders what Poch said to his charges at halftime, because it all fell apart in the second 45, much like the PSG wall that completely failed to defend a Riyad Mahrez free kick.