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Despite dominating English football for the best part of a decade, Manchester City have so far failed to land their owner’s most prized trophy – the Champions League. The closest the club has come was when they were beaten finalists in 2021, losing 1-0 to Chelsea.
However, City’s complete annihilation of Spanish giants Real Madrid in the second leg of their semi-final this season came with a distinct feeling that it was far more than just an impressive performance. From the first minute to the last, City were both ruthless and faultless. It felt like an era-defining night.
On The Verge of Greatness
Now, just one game against Inter Milan stands between the Manchester team and their ultimate prize. In addition, the way they dismantled the competition’s winning-most team has led to Manchester City being named as firm favourites with many betting sites via www.bettors.co.ke, including 888 Bet, who have Man City at odds of 21/50 to win by full time, at the time of writing.
Both teams have stuttered slightly over the course of the season but hit form at the business end of things. But you can’t help but think Inter are not in the same class as the machine that is Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
They’ve always been apt to blow teams away – even last year when they won the Premier League without a real number 9. However, as described on www.premierleague.com, most could attest to the fact that the addition of Erling Haaland has set them apart from other teams domestically and on the European stage.
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Man City’s Relentless Edge
Sure, Real Madrid were poor in the semi-final second leg. The way Man City came out of the blocks with a high-intensity possession game was too much for Madrid, and for all the collective experience within the camp, Madrid was never able to recover and get a foothold in the game.
City takes the credit for this. They were relentless – never taking their foot off the gas. On that performance, they would have beaten any team, from anywhere in the world and any era. While Inter Milan has finished the season well, including dismantling city neighbours AC Milan in the other Champions League semi-final, their record this season leaves a lot to be desired.
The official site of Serie A, https://www.legaseriea.it/en, shows Inter’s defeats this year run into double figures, and they were nowhere near Napoli, who wrapped up the title with a month left of the season. Their Champions League campaign doesn’t offer too much hope either. They lost twice to Bayern Munich in the group stages, finishing 8 points behind the Germans.
Since then, their route to the final has seen them overcome Porto, Benfica and AC Milan. It’s an old cliché that you can only beat the team in front of you. But going into the final in Istanbul, Inter have only played one team that could have been seriously considered one of the favourites at the start of the season – and they lost both games without scoring a goal.
In Acerbi, Bastoni and Darmian, the Italians have defenders of undoubted quality. But so did Real Madrid. The movement, vision and crisp passing of Manchester City, though, was too much for Madrid. And if they repeat that performance, we could see the most one-sided Champions League final ever, and the crowning of new champions of Europe who will be long to reign over us.