In an interview with UEFA.com ahead of the Champions League final, Manchester City sensation Ferran Torres has labelled the Chelsea team ‘a pain in the neck’ in some flattering and respectful comments…
Torres has enjoyed a remarkable debut season with the Citizens, despite not being a bonafide starter for Pep Guardiola’s side just yet.
The 21-year-old, who joined the Manchester outfit for an initial fee of £21m, per Goal, in what’s shaping up to be a bargain deal, has scored 13 times for the Sky Blues and laid on three assists.
Torres admitted that Chelsea are ‘a pain in the neck’ but in a ‘good way’, with the Spaniard impressed by the fact that Thomas Tuchel’s side are ‘always chasing the ball’ and really have an intent to win it back.
The talented young forward then reminded himself that City have fallen to the Blues twice this season, however Guardiola went with heavily rotated lineups for FA Cup misery and Premier League defeat.
Here is what Torres had to say on the Blues in a preview of the final:
“They’re a pain in the neck, in a good way, since they’re always chasing the ball. They run a lot and they want the ball.”
“They don’t just go for counterattacks, they also want to take the ball off you, which deserves some credit.”
“City are a team which likes to have the ball, and it’s sometimes very hard to take it from us, but they’ve done a great job against us.”
“In fact, they’ve beaten us twice. I mean, you never know in a [UEFA] Champions League final.”
“We’re one of the best teams in the world, [so] we have to try and win it all. We’ve won the Premier [League], which is a very hard task – you have to work hard throughout the whole season to achieve it.”
“But a Champions League final [win] would be like the icing on the cake. City have never won one, which is an extra motivation, and we’re going to work hard in this final sprint.”
“And we’re going into it feeling really excited, because above everything else it’s about enjoying it.”
Torres has only made a single outing forCity in the knockout stages of the Champions League but sits as their top scorer for the competition with four goals, owing to his exploits in the group stages.
The Spaniard was hitting decent form in the closing stages of the top-flight season but was limited to short cameo appearances of the bench in City’s final two Premier League ties of the season.
Torres is certainly talented enough to put the sword to a resilient Chelsea defence, who have performed exceptionally when facing elite competition since the arrival of Thomas Tuchel.