Manchester City are European champions for the first time in club history, having defeated Inter 1-0 in the 2022/23 Champions League final in Istanbul.
It wasn’t the English champions’ best performance of the season, but Rodrigo‘s goal and Ederson‘s saves were enough for victory, a win that completes a historic treble for Pep Guardiola‘s side, following on from the Premier League and FA Cup trophies they’ve already lifted.
It took Manchester City a long time to break their opponents down, as Inter were very well organised and even managed to press successfully at points, knocking the Sky Blues off their rhythm.
Although Erling Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne managed to force Andre Onana into a couple of first-half saves, they were fairly comfortable for the Cameroonian goalkeeper.
The worst news of the first half for Manchester City was the fact that De Bruyne suffered an injury and had to go off, being replaced by Phil Foden.
Even after the passage through the dressing rooms, Manchester City didn’t find many answers and the start of the second half followed a similar pattern, with Inter able to get many bodies back in defence.
It was actually Inter who had the first good chance of the second period, when Manuel Akanji let a ball run to accidentally allow Lautaro Martinez a good shooting chance just before the hour mark, but Emerson came up big.
Rodrigo breaks the deadlock
Akanji made amends at the other end, as it was his neat ball into the penalty area that released Bernardo Silva for the move that broke the stalemate. After Silva‘s attempted cutback deflected to the top of the box, Rodrigo arrived from deep to fire into the bottom corner in the 67th minute, sending the City fans wild with delight.
From there, Inter sought an equaliser to try to force extra time and they did come very close to doing so.
In the 70th minute, Federico Dimarco headed off the crossbar and then turned the rebound off his own teammate, Romelu Lukaku, before Lukaku had an 89th minute chance from close range that Ederson somehow managed to block with his leg.
Even with the last action of the match, Ederson had to make a save at a corner before the full time whistle finally sounded to mean Manchester City are the kings of Europe.