Man City vs Inter Milan LIVE: Champions League final result and reaction after City seal historic treble
Man City 1-0 Inter Milan: Rodri’s second-half strike saw Pep Guardiola’s City win a nervy game and complete a historic treble
Rodri fired the winning goal as Manchester City finally claimed Champions League glory and completed the treble with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Inter Milan.
The midfielder rifled home in the 68th minute as the Premier League winners City wore down the Italians in a draining final at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul.
The contest was a tight one, with City suffering a serious blow in pursuit of the prize that has eluded them for so long when they lost Kevin De Bruyne to injury in the first half. The prolific Erling Haaland was also kept quiet by a stubborn Inter side but Rodri eventually made the breakthrough with a firm strike after a Bernardo Silva pass was deflected into his path.
It capped a momentous season for City having also won the FA Cup as well as a fifth Premier League title in six years. Their success means they also join rivals Manchester United as the only side to have won all three of those trophies in the same season. It meant mission accomplished for owner Sheikh Mansour, who was present in Istanbul at only his second match since purchasing the club in 2008 and subsequently propelling them to the game’s top table. Manager Pep Guardiola could also celebrate Champions League success again 12 years after the second of his two wins as Barcelona boss.
Relive the Champions League final below:
Man City vs Inter Milan
We’re only about five minutes away from kick-off and the teams are in the tunnel. Jack Grealish looks focused, chewing on a piece of gum but steely-eyed.
Kyle Walker only on the bench for Man City
The BT Sport crew have been discussing how Kyle Walker will feel about being dropped for the final. Pep Guardiola has opted for Ake, Akanji, Dias and Stones as his defensive options
It was probably the main selection decision for Pep ahead of this final
Pep Guardiola gives his pre-match thoughts
Pep Guardiola cutting a relaxed figure in the build-up to the final
WATCH: What tactics can we expect from the sides this evening?
Man City and Inter fans have been Champions League final tactics ahead of the game at an Istanbul festival. Any revelatory insights from the suppporters?
Why is BT Sport being rebranded to TNT Sports? Eurosport merger explained
BT Sport will disappear from television screens in the United Kingdom in July as the channel rebrands to TNT Sports, with Premier League football, Champions League football and Premiership Rugby next season to be shown on the new channel.
BT Sport will still show Manchester City vs Inter Milan in the 2023 Champions League final as one of the final major live events before the rebrand.
The renaming follows the purchase of BT Sport by Warner Bros Discovery, which also owns Eurosport. In time, the two channels will be brought together under the TNT Sports brand, with fans able to watch top football, rugby, tennis and Olympic sport action all under one banner.
For now, though, Eurosport will remain distinct - the channel is the lead rightsholder for the Paris 2024 Olympics in the UK and Ireland.
But what does this mean for subscribers, and what is TNT Sports?
Why is BT Sport being rebranded to TNT Sports?
BT Sport’s renaming follows a merger with Eurosport-owners Warner Bros Discovery
Erling Haaland interview: ‘I could have scored more with Man City. That’s the truth’
Erling Haaland can bring a certain directness, on and off the pitch. He can scythe a way through defences and, after his most devastating display, cut through the official rhetoric from Manchester City with similar speed. He had just struck five times against RB Leipzig, becoming only the third player to score five goals in a Champions League game, when he came out and said City bought him to win the competition.
It wasn’t the party line, or something Pep Guardiola had ever admitted.
“You say it yourself and it’s true: they won the Premier League without me, they won every trophy without me,” Haaland rationalised. “So I’m here to try to do a thing that the club has never done before and I’ll do my best.” He nevertheless drew a direct link between his own presence and City’s fate in Europe. Haaland burdened himself with expectation. “Of course I feel pressure,” he said. “I would lie if I said I didn’t.”
Thus far, he has dealt with it admirably. Haaland’s awkward start lasted precisely one game, a Community Shield when he had just 16 touches, hit the bar when presented with what almost amounted to an open goal and generated some entertainingly inaccurate predictions about how he would fare.
Erling Haaland interview: ‘I could have scored more with Man City. That’s the truth’
Free-scoring all season long, the Norway international comes into the Champions League final on his most barren run of the year
Inter and the impossible task of the Champions League final
When Pep Guardiola and his staff began to properly prepare for this Champions League final, they found something they haven’t really experienced in, well, years.
It has been very difficult to identify patterns or trends in Inter’s play because there don’t appear to be any. During the quarter-final against Benfica, it became clear that the Portuguese side had much more of an idea of play, in that they had an idea at all. Inter’s forward players, by contrast, didn’t seem to be coordinated. There were moments when some would press and some wouldn’t, as if it was completely ad hoc.
A few figures in the game have quipped that it is like something out of the turn of the millennium, or even 1990, and that it certainly shouldn’t be working in 2023. It is most definitely not a product of the pressing-dictated world that Guardiola himself has been so central to creating.
It is not the only way that Inter have defied the norms of the modern game in reaching their sixth Champions League final. They may be one of football’s grandiose names and one of the most successful clubs in the competition’s history, having already lifted the European Cup three times, but they are currently not a “super club” and very far from one of the better eras in their own 115 years of existence. It is actually funny how football works, even as it has changed.
Miguel Delaney gives the lowdown on City’s opponents this evening:
Inter and the impossible task of the Champions League final
Inter were supposed to be falling apart; instead, they have defied expectations to reach the Champions League final but a mismatch awaits in Istanbul
Man City’s European final history
Are there good vibes in terms of history for Man City heading into today’s game?
City have only appeared in two previous major European finals, beating Polish side Górnik Zabrze 2-1 in the 1970 Cup Winners’ Cup final, before losing the 2021 Champions League final 1-0 to fellow English side Chelsea.
So, a mixed bag.
England vs Italy in a Champions League final
We all remember what happened when England faced Italy in the Euro 2021 final but what happens when it’s a club match between teams from the country in a Champions League decider?
English and Italian sides have met in four previous European Cup/Champions League finals, with Liverpool always the English team previously.
They won the competition on penalties in 1984 vs Roma and 2005 vs Milan and lost the 1985 and 2007 finals against Juventus and AC Milan respectively.
No history between Man City and Inter
It’s fair to say there’s not much history between Man City and Inter. In fact, there’s none at all.
This is the first-ever meeting between the sides. It’s the first time the first competitive meeting between two sides has been in a Champions League final since Liverpool faced AC Milan in 2005, coincidentally also played at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul.
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