One goal was enough to keep Manchester City happy. In a closed match against Internazionale, it was finally the British who managed to find the fault, through Rodri, in the 68th minute of play. On the smallest of scores, they won their first League champions in their history, two years after failing against Chelsea and succeeding Real Madrid.
The season of Pep Guardiola’s players is incredible. They completed a historic treble after their league and FA Cup success.
The Skyblues thus become the fourth British team to win the Champions League, after Manchester United (1999, 2008), Liverpool (2005, 2019) and Chelsea (2012, 2021).
For Guardiola, this is the third coronation in C1, after the two won on the bench of FC Barcelona (2009, 2011), his training club. The 52-year-old former midfielder, who has failed on the European scene – since leaving Barça – when he was at the helm of Bayern Munich (2013-2016) and Manchester City, has finally broken the curse, two years after a lost final with the Mancunian club against Chelsea (1-0).
With three Champions League to his credit, he is only one unit behind Carlo Ancelotti, the most successful technician (4), and reaches the level of Zinédine Zidane and Briton Bob Paisley, also crowned in C1 at three times.
This victory is also a consecration for Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, vice-president of the United Arab Emirates, who saved the club from bankruptcy by buying it in 2008. Since that date, more than 1.5 billion euros was invested in the transfer market to build a team capable of winning in the Champions League.
The final had however started very badly for ManchesterCity with the exit on injury in the 36th minute of its Belgian playmaker, Kevin De Bruyne, visibly injured in the right thigh and replaced by the Briton Phil Foden. The Norwegian striker Erling Haaland, author of 52 achievements this season, all competitions combined, remained silent and hardly weighed on the meeting.
For Inter Milan, reaching the final is a feat in itself, and the Italian club have nothing to be ashamed of their performance even if they fail to win back a trophy they have already lifted three times ( in 1964, 1965 and 2010).
