ROB DRAPER: Man City get no points for style after being thrown off their stride by Inter Milan but Rodri delivers the ultimate prize as Pep Guardiola's team claim their moment of destiny
It’s the cameo moments, away from the camera, that catch the eye on these occasions as the celebrations break off.
There was Kyle Walker, sprinting around the pitch excitedly with a gaggle of under 10s following him and then scooping one of the smaller children in his arms, safe in his embrace. It humanises the achievement, provides context.
A candid man, open about the paradox of both the difficulties and huge sense of community he experienced growing up on the Lansdowne Estate in Sheffield, was achieving a life goal. Not just the one of winning a Champions League trophy. But that of providing security to a child.
There was Pep Guardiola, clasping hands with defeated Inter players but standing back as his players cavorted in front of the Manchester City fans. Ilkay Gundogan had led the charge beyond the advertising barriers to get closer to them and for a moment it look like the excitement might cause danger, as fans surged to greet him. That was averted and safer celebration ensued.
Guardiola stood back as everyone else sung that Dave Clarke Five song, Glad All Over, which they have adapted to hail their coach. Quietly he surveyed what had had achieved, the only coach to win this Champions League- domestic cup- league title treble twice.
He changed football in 2009 when he did it in his first season as a coach. He’s had to wait another 14 years to ascend that mountain again, with some tactical brainstorms, not all good, along the way. But here was the quite satisfaction of a 52 year old knowing the work had been done.
He came here to win this. Not only has he done it he has done the unthinkable and matched Manchester United’s 1999 treble, an achievement which had stood alone in England. ‘It’s an honour for me to be alongside Sir Alex Ferguson.’
He then revealed that the old maestro had messaged him this morning. ‘That touched me.’ Sometimes ancient city rivalries can be diffused.
He would also name check his chief executive Ferran Soriano and sports director Txiki Begiristain, old colleagues from Barcelona days.
‘Normally when you try to win the Champions League and you miss, normally you are sacked,’ he said. ‘How many clubs destroy the project [when they don’t win]? That’s why I have to give credit I them.
‘But today we could have lost the game. Then we would have failed. Disaster! Losers! All those words. But we are the same. We had the luck that in other games, Tottenham, Chelsea, we didn’t have.
'But this year was written in the stars that we must win. And finally they are not going to ask me: “When are you going to win the Champions League?”’
There were lighter moments too. ‘Be careful Real Madrid, we are on our way!’ he joked when asked if City could match the undisputed heavyweights of this competition with 14 wins. ‘Now we just 13 away!’
He put his head in his hands when asked how he would motivate the team next season. ‘No!’ he groaned. ‘Don’t talk about that. We need a break! My children were saying: “London is the final next season for the Champions League.’
He rolled his eyes. ‘I’m just looking forward to Manchester on Monday afternoon.’ Then City will parade their trophies.
Back out on the pitch was John Stones and Ederson jumping for joy together: the former City’s best player on a night when there weren’t any real stars, when their beautiful game alluded them.
The latter was their saviour at the end, keeping out two later Inter chances on which history might have turned. There was Rodri, the goal-scorer, deep in conversation with Bernardo Silva,
You’ll never take this moment away from these Manchester City players. They’re aren’t just the best team in Europe, an achievement secured in the transcontinental city of Istanbul. They are now among the greatest ever to play the game in England, a treble secured, the equal of their neighbours Manchester United.
They had to scarp to get there, with Kevin De Bruyne limping off in a second Champions League final, with Rodri’s 68th minute thundering strike meaning they would win a dog of a game that defied aesthetics. In the end, the coach for whom style means so much had to settle for an ugly win.
Many will say there is no such thing but this wasn’t the City we have grown accustomed to in the last third of the season, crushing all comers and baffling them with by pushing an extra man into midfield.
But this wasn’t the City we have grown accustomed to in the last third of the season, crushing all comers and baffling them with by pushing an extra man into midfield. This was a disjointed team, seemingly thrown off their stride by Inter. This was a disjointed team, seemingly thrown off their stride by Inter, who came close to causing the upset of the century.
We have regrets,’ said Inter coach Simone Inzaghi. None more so than that 88th minute header from Romelu Lukaku, one of those chances that appeared to transpire in slow motion, the Ataturk spellbound as Roben Gosens cross dropped for him, surveying the multiple options the Belgian had to score. He chose to head lamely at Ederson’s feet, the only area in which he couldn’t score.
Naturally, there are qualifications to make on this club. There will be another day of reckoning when the scales of justice are weighed, City’s accounts are quantified and a verdict is made on the claims of financial doping, which City deny.
‘What about the 115 Premier League charges?’ will be the cry from almost every other fan group around Europe. A guilty verdict might rob this club of much of the lustre accumulated in recent years and lose them pervious titles. But not this one and they will never take the treble.
That day of judgement will come but this night was about the fans who watched this team lose to Lincoln, Wycombe and York in the third tier. Those at Bootham Crescent in the run up to Christmas in 1998, when that York defeat sunk them to twelfth in the equivalent of League One, deserve their moment. Even with the accumulated wealth of Abu Dhabi oil reserves, this was still scarcely believable to most in 2008.
Now it will become common place as European clubs become geo-political footballs, an era City began. Some say it was inevitable. Throw enough money at the problem and eventually you’ll hit upon a solution. It does pose profound questions for football and its future but it isn’t quite that simple: ask Manchester United and Paris St Germain.
Those questions will continue to be asked and answers need to be forthcoming. But those who were at Bootham Crescent in 1998, this wasn’t the night for that.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiiAFodHRwczovL3d3dy5kYWlseW1haWwuY28udWsvc3BvcnQvZm9vdGJhbGwvYXJ0aWNsZS0xMjE4MTYyOS9ST0ItRFJBUEVSLU5vLXBvaW50cy1zdHlsZS1Sb2RyaS1kZWxpdmVycy1lbHVzaXZlLXByaXplLU1hbmNoZXN0ZXItQ2l0eS5odG1s0gEA?oc=5
2023-06-10 23:28:24Z
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