Group stage

Our group stage campaign began with an uneventful 0-0 draw at home to Sevilla, although we were indebted to a fine reaction from Edouard Mendy on his Champions League debut.

Then things took off when we hammered Krasnodar 4-0 away in front of a socially-distanced crowd in Russia, where Hakim Ziyech scored his first Chelsea goal. A 3-0 home win over Rennes put us in a strong position at halfway stage, as Timo Werner bagged two penalties and Tammy Abraham was on target too.

The return fixtures began with a trip to Rennes, where Callum Hudson-Odoi’s goal helped us to a 2-1 win, before we earned our result of the group stage against Sevilla on matchday five. Olivier Giroud had a night to remember as he scored all of our goals in a 4-0 win in Spain, bagging a perfect hat-trick and throwing in a penalty to complete the set.

The final group-stage game was played in front of 2,000 lucky fans who managed to get tickets for one of two matches in December to which spectators were admitted. Jorginho’s penalty earned us a 1-1 draw with Krasnodar, but we had already progressed.

Round of 16

Atletico Madrid represented a very tricky draw for the last 16, but we were in fine form over both legs under new boss Thomas Tuchel.

Giroud’s overhead kick gave us a 1-0 win in the away leg, before Emerson Palmieri came off the bench to seal a 2-0 victory in the second leg and a safe passage to the quarter-finals, following Ziyech’s opener.

Quarter-final

Porto were a tenacious opponent as both legs were played in neutral Seville due to international travel restrictions.

Once again, we won the away leg, taking it 2-0 thanks to goals from Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell, before a disciplined display in the second leg saw us through 2-1 on aggregate.

Semi-final

The semi-finals pitted us against Real Madrid for the first time in the Champions League and we travelled to their temporary home, the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, for the first leg. Christian Pulisic gave us the lead with a fine goal, and even though we were pegged back by a Karim Benzema strike, we fought hard to go back to Stamford Bridge in a good position at 1-1.

Mendy was forced to make a couple of super saves in the first half of the second leg, before Werner gave us the lead when he headed home the rebound from close range after Kai Havertz had hit the bar.

In the second half, we took control, creating chance after chance before Pulisic set up Mount to decide the tie and send us to our third Champions League final, where we’ll face Manchester City on Saturday.