EXTRA TIME

MCI 1 INT 0

June 10, 2023 at 10:21 pm Leave a comment

ManCity, Champions of Europe

Istanbul, Ataturk Stadium! Three days after West Ham beating Fiorentina and winning the Conference League, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have won the Champions League for the first time and completed their league, FA Cup and European Cup treble.

They came up against formidable opposition in the form of Inter Milan but have prevailed thanks to Rodri’s second-half strike. Fittingly enough, it was the most Manchester City-under-Pep style goal that you will ever see.

Italy had three teams in the European finals, but the Italian clubs lost all three of them. AS Roma came close to winning the Europa League final, but drew 1-1 aet, and then José Mourinho’s team lost out to FC Sevilla in the penalty shoot-out. Fiorentina was beaten by West Ham that won the game 2-1 with a 90th minute strike (Jarrod Bowen).

Rodri got the only goal of the Champions League final (68’), while City’s goalkeeper Ederson pulled off two stunning saves at the death to repel Inter as they went in search of a late equaliser. The Brazilian had looked off his game earlier in the evening but really came up trumps when it mattered.

City have now joined Manchester United which have been the first club to win the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup in the same season. The latter did so in 1998-99 with Sir Alex Ferguson at the Helm when they beat Bayern Munich in the famous final of Barcelona, scoring two goals within injury team and winning this final in much more dramatic fashion than City have done 2023. In the Premier League of 1998-99 United was one point ahead of Arsenal (with West Ham Utd finishing fifth in one of their best seasons in the Premier League, by the way) and the FA Cup 1999 was won by ManUtd with 2-0 against Newcastle (goals: Sheringham, Scholes). Guardialo said that Sir Alex sent him a message of congratulation and that it was a great honour to be alongside the Manchester Utd legend. Guardiola himself has now won two “trebles”, the first coming in 2009 with FC Barcelona.

If one would like to compare the English trebles of City and United, according to The Telegraph, “City are the greater team, but United’s treble was better”. United would always have been the first.

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