BREAKING: Pep #Guardiola Win First UEFA Champions League For Manchester City – #UCLfinal—Manchester City secured a historic treble with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Inter Milan in the Champions League final.
A stunning strike from Rodri was enough for Pep Guardiola’s side to end their long wait for European glory in what proved to be a cagey and much tougher night than many had expected.
With the Premier League and FA Cup already won, City have become just the second English team in history to win a continental treble, following Manchester United in 1998/99.
City were heavy favourites to win in Istanbul and based on the opening few minutes it seemed that they would dominate with Bernardo Silva’s curling effort only just flashing wide.
But chances for each side proved to be few and far between thanks with Inter fantastically nullifying their opponents with their pressing and always looking problematic on the counter.
That said, they were unable to meaningfully test Ederson, with their best chance coming from Nicolo Barella attempting to catch the City keeper off his line after he sloppily gave the ball away.
Guardiola pleased for his players to ‘relax’ and initially it did the trick with Erling Haaland breaking free and testing Andre Onana with a powerful shot from a tight angle.
But just moments later disaster struck when attacking midfielder Kevin De Bruyne was forced off injured with what appeared to be a hamstring injury, with Phil Foden replacing him after just 35 minutes.
Not much changed after the break with Inter continuing to frustrate City who started to become uncharacteristically sloppy, with Manuel Akanji gifting the ball to Lautaro Martinez on the edge of the box but thankfully for the defender Ederson was able to save his blushes.
But as Guardiola instructed, the Citizens remained calm, continued to play their game and were rewarded when Silva’s cutback was deflected into the path of Rodri who powered the winner into the bottom right corner.
With just over 20 minutes to go Inter had to change tac and did, nearly equalising straight away with Federico Dimarco heading onto the bar after a scramble in the box, before his rebounded effort was, rather comically, blocked near the goal line by a hapless Romelu Lukaku.
The Chelsea loanee tested Ederson minutes later but the Serie A giants had to remain wary of the English champions with Phil Foden nearly finishing the game only for Onana to deny him.
It seemed that the game was petering out but with just minutes of normal time to go Ederson pulled off one more remarkable save to deny Lukaku, who ought to have found the back of the net with a header from just a few yards out.
Inter, aiming to win their fourth Champions League, kept going with Barella’s strike from distance coming close but it wasn’t to be for Simone Inzaghi’s side with Ederson pulling off one more incredible save with the last touch of the game.
