The third and last European Cup final of the season takes place on Saturday evening and Inter will be hoping for a slice of better luck than the other two Italian teams who reached European finals this season. AS Roma lost out to Sevilla on penalties and West Ham got the better of Fiorentina in the Europa League and Conference League respectively.
Inter Milan now face arguably the toughest task as they prepare to take on English champions Manchester City. Not only is this an important match in its own right but Inter are hoping to complete a cup double and Manchester City are aiming to complete a treble.
Manchester City have never won the UEFA Champions League but will view this as the ideal chance to do so as they come into this match on the back of winning a domestic double and are strong favourites to get the better of Inter. This is the second time they have reached the final in the past three years when they lost out to Chelsea in 2020/2021. Since February they have only lost once, a meaningless match on the last day of the season. In that time they won 21 and drew 5 of the other matches.
Manchester City’s route to the final has been impressive as they got the better of RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in dominant fashion. The semi final win over the Spanish giants was particularly impressive as they dominated the match against last season’s winners. Their performance in the FA Cup final against close rivals Manchester United was perhaps not the best of their season, but they got the job done and never really looked in danger of losing the match as they got the second leg of their treble done. Should they win this final, they will be only the second English team to complete a treble, matching United’s famous achievements from 1999.
Inter will be well aware that they go into this match as underdogs but will be hopeful of causing an upset. The Italian team got past Benfica and AC Milan on the way to the final and only lost one match on foreign soil in the Champions League this season. On the other hand, they lost three of their last five fixtures against English teams, including losing against Liverpool in the knockout stage of this competition last season.
Defence will be key for Inter, as stopping Manchester City from scoring has proved to be a near impossible task. Inter have kept five clean sheets in the last six Champions League matches though, so their success is based on a strong defence. Manager Simone Inzaghi will be hoping to instil a fighting spirit in his team and will be emphasising that any chances they do get they will need to be clinical and make the most of them.
Key players in this match will likely be the Norwegian striker for Manchester City who has netted 12 goals in 10 Champions League matches this season. Jack Grealish has been in excellent form of late and Ilkay Gundogan scored both goals in the FA Cup final last weekend. Inter striker Romelu Lukaku has plenty of experience playing against English teams and has had a habit of scoring late in this season’s Champions League and has five career goals against Manchester City.
This is actually the first competitive meeting between these two teams, with the previous two meetings in friendly matches ending in 3-0 wins, one for each team. Therefore, we cannot gauge much in terms of historical data but the odds favour Manchester City. They are currently given a 69% chance of winning the match, and given both teams’ respective seasons so far, it is hard to argue with that.
Goals are expected in this final, with over 2.5 favoured, that is despite the fact that finals tend to be tight affairs with the last three all ending with a 1-0 scoreline. The last final to contain more than three goals was the 2017-2018 final between Real Madrid and Liverpool which ended 3-1 to the Spanish team.
The final will be held at Istanbul’s Ataturk Stadium, the home of the Turkish National team in the west of the city. The stadium has a capacity of 75,000 and this is the second time this stadium has hosted the final. The last time was the memorable match between AC Milan and Liverpool which saw an incredible comeback from the English team. Having been 3-0 down they came back to draw the match and win on penalties in one of the most dramatic finals ever. Manchester City will be regarded as the home team for the match, although this is largely only for administrative reasons. The referee will be Szymon Marcinak of Poland, who also refereed the World Cup final in 2022.
A European final is always a special occasion, and we have already witnessed drama and excitement in the Europa League and Conference League finals this season. Fans will hope for another lively and entertaining match and viewers around the world will be waiting to see whether Manchester City can complete their treble and whether Guardiola can finally win this much coveted competition again, having failed to do so since leaving Barcelona. Everything is lined up for an eventful and exciting conclusion to the European club football season as we await to find out whose name will be added to the list of winners of the most prestigious trophy in club football.