It all comes down to this for Manchester City and Inter Milan. Of the 78 teams that took part in the Champions League this season across qualifying, groups and knockout, just two remain and will face each other on Saturday night in Istanbul.
Man City have been dominant this season, as seen by their 5-1 aggregate win over last year’s European champions Real Madrid, which sets them as clear favourites in the final. They are hoping to become just the second English team to win the treble after Man Utd triumph in 1999 after their FA Cup win over their Manchester rivals.
Man Utd wanted nothing more than to stop City from having a shot at the treble so they could keep bragging rights in the city, but now Pep and his team are just one game away. We’d expect City to dominate all of the possession in the final, and we know that the more of the ball that they have in Inter’s half, the more chances they will create. Man City live by the Johan Cruyff philosophy of controlling the game by keeping the ball not chasing it.
When I used to play against Inzaghi there were some very interesting battles, not the type of encounters we have now when we bump into each other in the great city of Rome. We always have had quick chats, and I personally never knew there was such an intelligent coach living inside him.
Inzaghi has been tactically impressive in the Champions League this season so we will hopefully see a solid game plan that makes it as hard as possible for Man City to break them down, maybe by slowing the game down and playing deep to not leave too much space behind their own defensive line. More than anything they need to play with passion.
But Inter are on an 8-game winning run and will be feeling confident. Anything can happen in 90 minutes of football so time will only tell how the game turns out.
Man City have been playing with swagger and it will be a big ask for Inter to shut them out but we have all seen miracles happen in football and it’s all to play for in Istanbul on Saturday. #mmlove