Rodri scored from a Bernardo Silva cutback midway into the second half to decide a game in which City were thrown off their customary flow and lost Kevin De Bruyne to injury.
Erling Haaland, who has 52 goals this season, went goalless for the fifth time in a row, but City had enough to beat opponents who were never supposed to come this far.
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“It wasn’t easy. What a team we faced, unbelievable,” Rodri told newsmen.
Man City are the first English team to achieve a trifecta since Manchester United in 1999, having already won their fifth Premier League title in six seasons and the FA Cup.
Pep Guardiola defeated Gillingham on penalties in the English third-tier play-off final 24 years ago.
Now, two years after losing to Chelsea in their first final, they have established themselves as England’s premier side and have finally added the ultimate prize in European club football.
Speaking further about City’s victory, Rodri said, “I think we made history. The good thing is that we want more. This project is to want more, more ambition.”
The game was attended by City owner Sheikh Mansour, who made a very uncommon visit at a City game as his team capped their rise from also-rans to superpowers in the years since he purchased the club in 2008.
Meanwhile, Guardiola enters an elite club of coaches who have won the competition three times, twelve years after last capturing the title with Barcelona.
“It’s so difficult to win it,” Pep Guardiola said, and added that City’s victory this season was “written in the stars”.
After beating RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich, and Real Madrid to reach the final, City faced a difficult task against Inter, who saw Federico Dimarco and replacement Romelu Lukaku both almost equalize.
Inter had wanted to pull off a shock and win the trophy for the fourth time. Although it was not to be, Simone Inzaghi’s side will compete again next season.
Inzaghi said, “We didn’t deserve to lose. We played against a top team, absolutely, but Inter also played a great final.”
With the win for Guardiola’s players, and United’s three trophies, Manchester becomes only the second city after Milan to produce two different winners of the competition.
The drama of the previous Champions League final at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium was not replicated here. Liverpool won on penalties in 2005 after rallying from a three-goal deficit against AC Milan to level 3-3.
However, everything went through without a hitch, a year after pandemonium dominated the final at the Stade de France in Paris, even if the stadium’s location some 25 kilometers west of central Istanbul made access difficult for fans.
Man City, who started Nathan Ake ahead of Kyle Walker in defense, expected Inter to come out and try to stop them, and the first half went according to plan for the Italians. They pressed and snapped at City’s heels, but the greatest chance fell to Guardiola’s men when De Bruyne set up Haaland for a shot that Andre Onana saved brilliantly.
City were subsequently dealt a big blow when De Bruyne, who was injured in the 2021 final, left the game on 36 minutes and was replaced by Phil Foden. The game opened up just as the thought of extra time and a final completion after midnight began to loom.
Lautaro Martinez missed an opportunity created by a terrible Silva ball back toward his own goal, and City scored in 68 minutes. Silva was found in the box by Manuel Akanji’s ball, and his cutback deflected off a defender before dropping for Rodri to score.
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It was the Spanish midfielder’s second goal of the competition, following his spectacular strike against Bayern in the quarter-finals. Inter’s resistance was overcome, but they almost immediately equalized when Dimarco’s header hit the crossbar.
They nearly did it again in the 88th minute, when Ederson blocked a goal-bound Lukaku shot. After coming so close in previous Champions League campaigns, it was now City’s turn.
