Manchester City will face Inter Milan in the Uefa Champions League final at the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey on Saturday. It promises to be one in a lifetime encounter with the Cityzens having their eyes set on completing a treble dream.
The Premier League champions are odds on favorite to lift this season’s European elite trophy ahead of Inter and here are five reasons they will clinch their first Champions League trophy.
The Pep Guardiola factor
For Man City manager, Pep Guardiola, this is familiar territory as he is vastly experienced and this will be his fourth Champions League final as a coach.
Guardiola won two UCL titles with Barcelona back in 2009 and 2011 and lost the 2021 edition as City boss and he is desperate to win his third title this weekend.
Also as the saying goes, once beaten, twice shy, the Spanish football tactician would do everything within his power to avoid a repeat of what happened in the 2020/21 season.
Recall that just like this season, the Cityzens were the clear favorites to defeat fellow Premier League side, Chelsea in the champions league final but they suffered a shock 1-0 loss.
Kai Havertz scored the only goal of the game which Man City dominated but lost as a result of Guardiola’s overthinking, something he would guard against when they face Inter.
Guardiola would also love to be victorious in Saturday’s final as he will have won just about everything there is to win for Manchester City and cement his place as an all-time great at the club.
Haaland’s scoring form
Man City’s acquisition of free-scoring Norwegian striker Erling Haaland, who has score more than 50 goals in his first season, gives the Premier League champions an advantage in the final.
Haaland has been on fire this season, scoring with reckless abandon and has 12 goals for City in the Champions League, the joint-most by a player for an English team in a single campaign.
The Norwegian is well aware that he was brought to Man City to help them win the Champions League title and has been key to their latest charge to the final.
City who are one victory away from claiming the prize they covet most has been eluded them time after time with several near misses in recent years. They can certainly count on Haaland to punish Inter.
The striker has found the target more than 52 times across all competitions since City identified him as the potential final piece in their jigsaw last summer and paid £51 million to recruit him from Borussia Dortmund.
“The only thing Manchester City miss now is the Champions League. You can think and read between the words and the lines, I was brought here for a reason,” Haaland said in a stern warning to Inter.
Man City more complete, compact
Without a doubt, the current Man City is more compact as a unit than Inter Milan as the Cityzens also boast of players who can spring up individual brilliant moments even if Haaland fails to shine.
Even when Haaland failed to score in his last two Champions League games, the Mancunians struck the back of the net five times against Real Madrid.
City have so many talented players in their team with the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Bernado Silva, Ilkay Gundogan who know how to find the back of the net despite being wingers and midfielders irrespective of the position they play.
Motivation to equal Man United’s treble
Man City’s desire to win the treble after clinching the Premier League title and FA Cup is one strong reason why they will give it their all to defeat Inter in Saturday’s Champions League final.
Even Liverpool great, Peter Crouch, believes that City “look invincible” and has tipped them to be too strong for Inter as Guardiola’s side look to complete the treble.
City secured the Premier League title after finishing on 89 points, five more than second-placed Arsenal and beat neighbours, Manchester United 2-1 in the FA Cup final last weekend.
All eyes will now be on the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul as the Citizens set out to capture their third trophy of the season and replicate Sir Alex Ferguson’s Man United side of 1999.
City have learned from past European failures
Man City have learned from past failures in Europe as they prepare to face Inter in the Champions League final, according to the club’s midfielder, Rodri.
With Europe’s biggest prize having continued to elude them, Rodri pointed to their sensational win against Real Madrid in the semi-final as confirmation that City can right the wrongs of previous seasons.
“As I told you before, we try to learn a lot from the past. It’s something you learn and I think the desire… how we played Real Madrid, for example, before a defeat there last year,” the Spaniard said.
“So, we’re going to play Inter in the same way, trying to solve the situation, come back from the situation and try to win the final.”
Everything, literally everything, points towards a City win as they are the best team on the planet and have shown it is basically impossible for any club to contend with their style of football when they are on song.
