Inter vs. Manchester City: surprise or treble in Istanbul

“History beats us,” Guardiola reflected, aware of his team’s inferiority on the books against a three-time champion of the league, but also warned: “History doesn’t matter.” You know well after you get the RealMadrid and closes his wound from last year.

Beating the ‘Whites’ ended many of the doubts that surrounded this club and these players and marked an anticipated final that they will now have to draw in Istanbul. What is arguably one of the most successful finals of the last two decades is the latest hurdle for a Premier League and FA Cup-winning city to choose to become the second Englishman to win the Premier League and FA Cup. wins. three major titles in the same season.

This responsibility can weigh on the legs of the City players, where there is no league winner, but that inexperience is covered by the talent and sheer quality of the players. Kevin de Bruyne, Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish and Ilkay Gundogan. It is the game that defines a generation that began in 2008 with the purchase of the United Arab Emirates and culminated in the same season when the club was accused by the Premier of 115 financial irregularities, a mole not to be forgotten when mentioning the successes of Manchester City, always in the shadow of financial doping.

Unlike 2021, when he dispensed with the defensive midfielder and paid a high price against Chelsea, Pep Guardiola will not experiment this time. They will rely on a three-back scheme in attack with John Stones as an extra midfielder when they have the ball and two wingers who tend to go in like Grealish and Silva. They are escorted in the middle of the po fieldGundogan and Rodri, with De Bruyne as a hitch.

Thirteen years after their last Champions League final, which they won with José Mourinho as coach in 2010, the year of the mythical treble that City wants to seal this season, Inter Milan are once again dreaming of entering heaven with the fourth. of his history, the one from which he is separated only by the Manchester crusher, an almost perfect football machine, longing for his first ‘ears’ in a game in which he is clearly the favorite to win the title.

But Inter is not worried about not being a favourite. In addition, he is comfortable in this position where no one bets on him. It’s a way to play with less pressure and keep the chance for surprises, although to shake up Guardiola’s team he will have to be impeccable in everything he does and in all his lines.

Onana under sticks and the usual three in the central lineBastoni, Acerbi and Darmian, they will have to hold off Haaland without losing sight of the attacking storm that accompanies him. But if they are able to maintain the level of solidity they have shown in the big events, Inter’s chances of victory will increase.

And it is that although it has not been a fruitful season in the A seriesInter have put forward their best version in the knockout competitions, winning the Coppa Italia, in what was the seventh final of the eight that Simone Inzaghi has played throughout his career, a true specialist in finals who will try to play his full with Inter, with whom he knows no defeat in games where a title is at stake.

The coach will form the 3-5-2 with his side, although with the question of whether to place Brozovic or Mkhitaryan, recovered from the injury that has kept him apart for the last four games. Barella and Calhanoglu will try to find the depth of Dimarco and Dumfries at the outdoor courts; and Lautaro, the differential ‘Nerazzurro’ player, for the central defender, either to escape the ball or for a counterattack.

Stable offensively, the Argentine, who is seeking the ‘Champions’ World Cup double, is expected to be joined by Dzekostarter in all important games for a Lukaku who, however, is in the prime of a bitter return to the club where he found his best version.