All-conquering Manchester City seek final piece of treble jigsaw in Istanbul
Inter Milan may be massive underdogs in Champions League final, but it’s foolish to write this talented team off so quickly
Lee U-Wen
THE curtain comes down on Europe’s club football season in Istanbul this weekend (Sunday 3 am kick-off, Singapore time), with England’s Manchester City taking on Italian side Inter Milan in the final of the UEFA Champions League.
Much of the chatter in the football world over the past week has revolved around City’s remarkable quest to complete the “treble”. They’ve already secured two of the three big prizes on offer, having retained their English Premier League (EPL) title last month with three games to spare, and seeing off a spirited challenge from Manchester United to claim the FA Cup at Wembley last Saturday.
But it’s safe to say that it’s the remaining piece of the jigsaw that the Citizens – and their manager Pep Guardiola – crave the most. Winning the Champions League would be their crowning moment, one that has seen a steady build-up ever since the takeover of the club by the wealthy Abu Dhabi United Group back in 2008.
BT Weekend takes a closer look at the fortunes of the two clubs ahead of the big game that will take place at the 75,000-seater Ataturk Olympic Stadium.
Inter won’t roll over
Even before a ball has been kicked, not many give Inter much of a chance of winning. The bookmakers, including Singapore Pools, have given the Nerazzurri (Inter’s nickname, which means the ‘black and blues’) extremely long odds of as much as 7-to-1 to win the game in 90 minutes.
That’s a bit of an insult to Inter, given that this is a one-off match that’s contested in a neutral venue. Inter, a three-time Champions League winner, have performed admirably to make it to the showpiece match – not because of luck, but largely down to their quality and determination.
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Inter qualified from a difficult group ahead of mighty Barcelona, and went on to eliminate Portuguese sides Porto and Benfica, as well as city rivals AC Milan in the knockout stage.
Inter, managed by former Italian international Simone Inzaghi, are on an impressive run of form too. They have won 11 of their last 12 games in all competitions, lifting the Italian Cup last month and finishing third in the league.
Inzaghi has many accomplished players in his squad, including Argentina’s World Cup winner Lautaro Martinez, former City striker Edin Dzeko, and on-loan striker Romelu Lukaku. All of them know what it’s like to win major trophies, and they certainly won’t pass on any opportunity they might get to score against City.
As Inzaghi and some of his players pointed out earlier this week, there is no fear in the team as they prepare for one of the biggest matches of their careers. “We’re talking about a football match, there’s no fear,” said Inzaghi. Defender Alessandro Bastoni chipped in: “You are scared of murderers, not football players. It would be a mistake to to talk about fear.”
Complacency the danger for City
City have steamrolled all before them this season, and the players, along with manager Pep Guardiola, know that victory in this final will rightfully earn them a place in the pantheon of the greatest football teams. Their top motivation is to emulate the treble-winning United side in 1999.
But, in order to do that, the Citizens must defeat Inter, and not let complacency creep in. They’ve been overwhelming favourites in a cup final before, only to somehow throw it all away. In the 2013 FA Cup final, City lost to Wigan Athletic – a team that was just relegated from the EPL – after conceding an injury-time goal.
It’s worth noting that, for all their history, City’s only European silverware to date is the Cup Winners’ Cup, which they clinched in 1970 after beating Polish side Gornik Zabrze.
Of course, Guardiola’s City today is a well-oiled machine, one that can blow away opponents with ease. In the Champions League, they topped a group that contained Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla, and in the knockout rounds they eliminated Germany’s RB Leibzig and Bayern Munich before ousting Real Madrid in the semi-finals.
City will, naturally, count on their talisman Erling Haaland, who has netted 52 times in his first season in English football, although he’s on a dry spell of late with just one goal in his last six games.
Defender Kyle Walker summed it up best when he said that City must win the Champions League in order to be recognised as one of the best teams in the world.
“It doesn’t define what this squad has achieved over the last six years. We have a second chance with Pep and the group of players who have stayed around, and we need to put right the wrongs we did against Chelsea,” he noted, referring to City’s 1-0 loss to Chelsea in the 2021 Champions League final.
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