THIS is the night they have been building towards for 15 years — ever since the Abu Dhabi takeover of Manchester City.
This is the night that Pep Guardiola has waited for since 2011 – when his Barcelona side wiped the floor with Manchester United at Wembley with one of the greatest performances of all time.
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And this is the night which Erling Haaland readily admits he was purchased for by the desert sheikhs last summer.
The night when Manchester City, barring a James ‘Buster’ Douglas moment from Inter Milan, will finally be crowned champions of Europe.
City are overwhelming favourites to complete the Treble — more so than any side contesting a Champions League final for at least two decades, and probably far longer than that.
Guardiola hasn’t won a Champions League for 12 years and he knows the lines we trot out on occasions like this.
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There’s the one about him overthinking his team selections in this competition and then there’s the one about him never having won the European Cup as a manager without Lionel Messi.
Guardiola played along with that last jibe when he was asked the secrets of his success on the eve of this final in Istanbul.
He replied: “Have good players. “Have Messi, have Haaland — this is my success. I’m not joking.
“Let them think alone they cannot do it, (only) together with a strong team.
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“Every manager who has had success has strong institutions and exceptional players — I’ve never scored a goal as a manager.”
He said he wasn’t joking but his tongue was certainly in his cheek. He isn’t as modest as all that.
Guardiola knows that complacency is his team’s biggest potential enemy here at the Ataturk Stadium on the western edge of this sprawling city which spans two continents.
It is extremely rare for a club to reach this final while considered to be outside of the top dozen teams in Europe.
But that is a reasonable assessment of Inter, whose route to Istanbul — via Porto, Benfica and city rivals AC Milan — was freakishly “easy”.
City have not lost a meaningful fixture for four months and are a very settled team, with Guardiola having stopped that ‘overthinking’ tendency.
Bayern Munich and Real Madrid were swept aside — and that 4-0 second-leg toppling of Carlo Ancelotti’s European champions felt hugely significant.
City were the team who consistently choked and lost when they should have won in the latter stages of this competition; Real were the club who always found a way to win, even when they shouldn’t.
But City simply sploshed the 14-time champions in that semi-final tie at the Etihad last month — to seal a 5-1 aggregate success — and their previous Champions League failures seem less relevant as a result.
Yet Guardiola’s most pointed message to his team was his urging them to stay calm if the match stays goalless for an extended period.
He said: “We have to be stable, defend well and be patient.
“The most important thing is not to think at 0-0 you are losing.
“Italian teams can think at 0-0 they are winning — and they are not.”
Ruben Dias spoke bullishly about City’s ability to go on relentless late-season runs.
The Portuguese defender said: “Since February, it’s the sweet spot — and you can see the character of a team when you arrive at these stages.
“You can see whether a team wants to move forward or starts hiding.
“Since that moment we’ve been showing up every time — and tomorrow will be no different. It’s another time for all of us to step up.”
Since February, City have overhauled Arsenal in the Premier League, including completing a comprehensive double over the long-time leaders, they have demolished Bayern and Real at home, then defeated Manchester United in an FA Cup final.
After all that, surely they cannot possibly toss away the Treble against an Inter team who, while in decent form, are an ageing side who finished a distant third in Serie A?
With Haaland at the forefront, City are a more complete and versatile team. Not as “pure” but better than ever before.
The Norwegian’s 52 goals in as many games have made him the stand-out player of the season.
But in recent weeks, their scoring duties have been shared around, with others — especially skipper Ilkay Gundogan — coming to the fore.
Asked about Haaland’s recent record — just one goal in seven matches — Guardiola was steadfast.
The City boss said: “If you have doubts about Haaland scoring goals then you’ll be lonely.
“I don’t have any doubts. He’ll be ready to help us win the Champions League.”
A City victory here tonight will feel like a sea change.
Until now, neither they nor their fellow oil-rich, state-run Paris Saint-Germain have won this trophy.
Next year, Saudi-owned Newcastle will join them at the top table. The old elite is finally being gatecrashed.
There are 115 Premier League charges of financial wrongdoing hanging over City and there is widespread discomfort with the sportswashing of authoritarian Middle Eastern regimes.
But any of the footballing doubts which surrounded Guardiola’s City regime have evaporated in recent months.
Tonight is the night he has been waiting for since he arrived in Manchester in 2016.
It is the night City’s owners have craved since 2008.
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Guardiola wasn’t shying away from the idea that winning this thing is a dream and an obsession.
Immortality awaits his team, barring one of the biggest footballing shocks of all time.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
