Champions League final LIVE: Manchester City vs Chelsea - Gundogan fit for City, Kante starts for Chelsea; Aguero benched

Welcome to Sportstar's live blog of the the Manchester City vs Chelsea Champions League final. The UCL final is being played at the Estadio do Dragao in Porto and kick-off is scheduled for 12:30 am IST.

11:45pm:  Manchester City's Phil Foden and Chelsea's Mason Mount into the Champions League final after seasons in which they moved from the 'promising youngster' category into fully-fledged game-changers. Foden, dubbed the “Stockport Iniesta”, has positioned himself as one of the most versatile midfielders in the Premier League and recently picked up his third domestic crown with the club. Mount, on the other hand, was named Chelsea’s player of the season and has nine goals and eight assists across competitions. More on that here - Foden and Mount inject youthful zest into Champions League final

11:35pm: Interesting line-ups here - both team feature only one forward! Sterling for City and Werner for Chelsea. Aguero starts the final game of his Manchester City career on the bench. Guardiola has also chosen to leave Rodrigo and Fernandinho on the bench while Ilkay Gundogan starts after recovering from a minor injury he sustained during a training session yesterday. Oleksandr Zinchenko also finds a sport in the starting XI.

Good news for Chelsea as the powerhouse Kante starts, while Ben Chilwell gets the nod ahead of Marcos Alonso. Alonso had scored a  stoppage-time when the two side's last faced on May 8.

11:25pm: TEAM NEWS!

Manchester City starting XI: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Stones, Zinchenko, Gundogan, De Bruyne (C), Bernardo, Mahrez, Sterling, Foden | Subs: Steffen, Jesus, Aguero, Rodrigo, Cancelo, Mendy, Laporte, Torres, Ake, Fernandinho, Carson, Garcia

Chelsea starting XI: Mendy, Azpilicueta (C), Thiago Silva, Rudiger, James, Kante, Jorginho, Chilwell, Mount, Werner, Havertz | Subs: Kepa, Alonso, Christensen, Pulisic, Caballero, Zouma, Kovacic, Giroud, Hudson-Odoi, Ziyech, Gilmour, Emerson

11:15pm: Thomas Tuchel got a taste of a Champions League final last season with Paris Saint-Germain but unfortunately, could not relish the dish as his team lost to Bayern Munich by a solitary goal.

After being sacked by the French club mid-season few would have predicted Tuchel to reach the grandest stage in Europe this year, but as fate would have it, Chelsea came calling and he has led the English club to its third Champions League final.

11pm: From the Guardiola vs Tuchel battle (the Chelsea boss has denied having a contest with this City counterpart) to the solid defences of both teams and the possibility of a penalty shoot-out, here are the talking points ahead of the Manchester City vs Chelsea Champions League final - Guardiola vs Tuchel highlights UCL final

10:45pm: Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola will look to win the third Champions League trophy of his managerial career when his side takes on Chelsea in Saturday's UCL final. The Spaniard had won two Champions League trophies with La Liga giant Barcelona in 2009 and 2011 and has now led City to its first final. He had, in fact, become the youngest manager to win the Champions League, at the age of 38, when he led Barcelona to the title in 2009.

10:30pm: Here's the preview for this evening's Manchester City vs Chelsea Champions League final clash -

After a season in which Europe's traditional powerhouses stumbled, Saturday's Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea is a showcase for the contemporary dominance of England's Premier League.

Neither club can boast a rich pedigree at this level -- City is making its debut on this stage while Chelsea will be featuring in its third Champions League final, having won the competition in 2012.

It is an 'all-English' final but both teams highlight the Premier League's ability to recruit the finest coaching and playing talent from across the continent and beyond.

READ|Manchester City remodels attack without Sterling, Aguero

City is coached by Spaniard Pep Guardiola, who won the competition twice when guiding Barcelona, while Chelsea's German boss Thomas Tuchel led Paris St Germain to the final last season, where it was beaten by Bayern Munich.

Both have benefited from its foreign owners' willingness to invest in top international talent with City's Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan from Abu Dhabi and Chelsea's Russian backer Roman Abramovich constantly providing the millions needed.

It is the second all-English Champions League final in three years, confirming the long-standing fears of debt-ridden Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona that the unmatched global commercial success of the Premier League will eventually be replicated on the field.

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Indeed, a recent UEFA report showed that English clubs were responsible for 43% of all global transfer activity in last summer's trading window.

There is of course, as Manchester United continue to prove, no guarantee that financial power delivers success on the field.

City's success, in winning three of the last four Premier League titles, owes much to Guardiola's brilliance as a coach and tactician and the club's excellent record in recruitment.

Under the Spaniard, City has produced some magnificent passing football but this year, largely thanks to the signing of Portuguese defender Ruben Dias, it has added steel at the back to the flair in the final third.

Tight defences

In previous European campaigns, City has exited after poor defensive displays where it fell apart at the back in crucial periods.

READ| Guardiola vs Tuchel highlights UCL final

This season though, City did not concede for 790 minutes of Champions League football, a run stretching from its opening group game against Porto until the 84th minute of the quarter-final, first leg against Borussia Dortmund.

Chelsea, with Brazilian veteran Thiago Silva at the heart of its defence, has also tightened up at the back and indeed the two finalists have conceded just four goals each in Europe this season.

That is the lowest total for the two finalists since Barcelona (four goals against) took on Arsenal (two) in the 2006 decider. Neither side has conceded more than once in a Champions League game this season.

But thankfully there will be no shortage of attacking talent aiming to exploit any lingering weaknesses in the two defences.

City has an abundance of attacking options, so much so that Guardiola has often been so confident in the goal-threat of his wide players and attacking midfielders that he has played without either of his centre forwards -- Argentine Sergio Aguero or Brazilian Gabriel Jesus.

On the right, Algerian winger Riyad Mahrez has scored 14 goals and claimed nine assists in all competitions with Phil Foden on the left producing 16 goals and creating 10 this season.

The attacking contributions from midfield are equally impressive with German Ilkay Gundogan claiming 17 goals and Belgian Kevin De Bruyne 18 assists.

Yet despite those numbers, Chelsea has shown that it can get the better of Guardiola's side -- the Londoners have won the last two encounters, at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final and the Etihad in the league earlier this month.

READ|City learnt lessons from Champions League setbacks says Gundogan

Englishman Mason Mount and American Christian Pulisic bring speed and precision to Chelsea's attack and while Germans Timo Werner and Kai Havertz have yet to fully deliver on their promise, they present a threat.

After a season in which games were played behind closed doors, up to 16,500 fans will be present at the Estadio do Dragao, the bulk of them having travelled from England.

They could be in for a treat.