PORTO, Portugal — All of a sudden, in the blink of an eye, there was time and there was space.
For 42 minutes, the Champions League final had been a frenzy, as though the Premier League had been distilled down to its whirling, spinning essence. Nobody paused for breath. Nobody stopped to think. And then, out of nowhere, everything seemed to stop.
A pass through the middle. A touch past the goalkeeper. A goal.
There is no rhyme or reason, not really, behind Chelsea being winners of the Champions League on the strength of its 1-0 victory over Manchester City on Saturday.