Manchester City and Inter Milan will play tonight at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul in the Champions League final, the most sought-after title of the year, with Pep Guardiola’s team as the favorites. If they win it, City will get the treble, since they have also won the Premier and the FA Cup, a treble that Guardiola also got with Barcelona.
The Catalan coach would also enter the select group of coaches who have won the orejona three times, which he already won with the blaugrana players in 2009 and 2011 and, in addition, he would become the sixth coach to win it with two different clubs .
This is the second time that Manchester City has reached the Champions League final. In his first attempt, in the 2020-21 campaign, he was defeated by Chelsea (1-0).
For this occasion, the skyblues are even more favorites due to their great form and their brilliant performance in the competition, finished off by a 4-0 defeat of Real Madrid, the current champion, in the second leg of the semifinals at the Etihad.
Although City is a clear favourite, we must not lose sight of Inter. In the previous phase he was second in the group (after Bayern) and sent Barcelona to the Europa League. In Serie A they were in third position, 18 points behind the champions, Napoli, but in Europe they have shown themselves to be very solid and reach the final after beating AC Milan with solvency in the semifinals. The team coached by Simone Inzaghi already has three European Cups, the last one won with José Mourinho as coach in 2010.
Manchester City has a lethal weapon in the Norwegian Erling HÃ¥land, author of 12 goals in this Champions League and 52 throughout the season. However, in the last seven games he has only scored one goal and failed to score against Real Madrid in the semifinals.
Inter is expected to be a very disciplined team, defending themselves without the ball to launch counterattacks that look for their two men up front, Edin Dzeko and Lautaro MartÃnez.
Simone Inzaghi spoke with great respect of the rival: “We know what game we will have to play. City are the strongest team in the world and they showed it even in the few defeats they’ve had this seasonâ€. Regarding HÃ¥land, the interista coach did not escape the topic: “We have something prepared. All Inter will have to defend. You have to limit all of Manchester City, not just HÃ¥land.â€
Pep Guardiola did not want to talk about favorites and recognized that the Champions League is “a positive obsession.” Of Inter he said that he is concerned about “how well he knows how to defend. With 0-0 they don’t get nervous. But they have a good start and the ability to contact Lautaro MartÃnez and Lukaku”.
Asked about the secret of his success as a coach, Guardiola said: “Having directed Leo Messi first and now HÃ¥land”.
