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Guardiola and Tuchel confident in players' penalty-taking abilities

Guardiola and Tuchel confident in players' penalty-taking abilities
© Reuters
The Manchester City and Chelsea managers are on guard for a shoot-out in Saturday's showdown in Porto.

Pep Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel believe any one of their players could boss a Champions League final shoot-out on Saturday night.

Guardiola's Manchester City favourites will take on Tuchel's resurgent Chelsea in Porto, with Europe's top prize and English bragging rights on the line.

And after goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli fired Villarreal to a staggering 11-10 penalties victory over Manchester United in the Europa League final, Guardiola and Tuchel have admitted being prepared for any spot-kick eventuality.

Manchester City and Chelsea's trophy hauls
(PA Graphics)

Tuchel has his Chelsea penalty order nailed down, with his players having excelled from the spot in last-minute training.

Guardiola might have shrugged off City's recent penalty travails ahead of the Estadio do Dragao encounter, but the Etihad Stadium boss still knows stopper Ederson could dispatch a deadly dead-ball if required.

"Listen, we can train for the penalties but you cannot replay the tension that happens in the real moments," said Guardiola.

"Just in case we arrive to the penalty shoot-out I will talk to the players, I will know exactly what I am going to tell them to be sure they take a good penalty and try to do it.

"But I had a few things to think about the game more than the penalty shoot-out."

City expect Ilkay Gundogan to shake off a minor thigh knock picked up in Friday training to be ready for the European showdown, while Edouard Mendy and N'Golo Kante should be fit for Chelsea.

Meanwhile, Blues boss Tuchel has revealed his men have been firing home every single penalty going in training.

"We always practise penalties when we face a match where it's possible it could go to penalties," said Tuchel.

Kevin De Bruyne stretches during a training session on Friday
Kevin De Bruyne stretches during a training session on Friday (Adam Davy/PA)

"Can we simulate the pressure, the fatigue, the occasion, how it will feel tomorrow? No, we cannot.

"But still we believe we can take care about some patterns, and about a certain rhythm and certain habits during penalties. Which we did.

"And honestly, the penalty shoot-out was fantastic in terms of quality from the takers, I've never seen anything like this – 20 penalties in a row and no misses.

"And so, so strong, and so well taken.

"And we have identified the guys who should take the penalties for us, but I don't know who in the end will be on the pitch.

"So we need to be well aware, but we are prepared and if we go to penalties we go in there together.

"And if we go out of penalties we'll do that together no matter what happens."

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Olympic medal table header
CountryGold medalSilver MedalBronze MedalT
JapanJapan103518
United StatesUnited States98825
ChinaChina95822
Olympics flagOlympic Athletes from Russia77418
AustraliaAustralia51511
Great BritainGreat Britain45413
Today's Olympic highlights header

Wednesday's key events


ROWING
· Team GB have dominated the men's coxless fours in recent Olympics, winning on each of the last five occasions, but this year they face some stiff competition. They are one of four rowing medal contenders for Great Britain today (2.10am)

SWIMMING
· Katie Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus face off again in the women's 200m freestyle final, with the latter having already come out on top in the 400m event (2.41am)
· Team GB's Abbie Wood is among the medal contenders in the women's 200m individual medley final, while teammate Alicia Wilson will also take part. USA's Kate Douglass was the fastest qualifier, while world and Olympic record holder Katinka Hosszu is also involved (3.45am)
· Katie Ledecky could make it two golds in one morning as she goes into the 1500m freestyle final as heavy favourite, having broken the Olympic record in qualifying (3.54am)
· Team GB were by far the fastest qualifiers for the men's 4x200m freestyle relay final and will therefore be favourites for another gold in the pool (4.26am)

RUGBY SEVENS
· Team GB take on New Zealand in the first men's semi-final, having been beaten by reigning champions Fiji but then come from behind to overcome USA on day two (3am)
· The sevens gold medal match takes place at Tokyo Stadium, with the winner of Great Britain vs. New Zealand taking on either Argentina or Fiji (10am)

ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS
· Joe Fraser and James Hall compete for Team GB in the men's all-around final (11.15am-2.10pm)

CYCLING
· Anna Shackley will take part in the women's road time trial (from 3.30am)
· Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart have medal ambitions for Great Britain in the men's road time trial, although both will need to recover from the crash they suffered on Saturday (6am)

DIVING
· Jack Laugher bids to retain his men's 3m synchro diving title alongside new partner Daniel Goodfellow (7am)

EQUESTRIAN
· Charlotte Dujardin will look to add to her already legendary status with a third successive Olympic individual dressage title (9.30am-1.25pm)

> Today's schedule in full
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