IN A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

Pep’s City are taking the beautiful game to a new level and surely now are destined for a Treble that will make them LEGENDS

SPECIAL teams deserve to make their mark in history.

Manchester City are taking football to a whole new level and that is why they are surely destined to complete the Treble.

Pep Guardiola’s men have already won two of the Holy Trinity – the Premier League title and now the FA Cup.

But lifting the Champions League will bring sporting immortality as they would emulate Sir Alex Ferguson’s Treble-winning heroes of 1999.

That was Manchester United’s biggest motivation at Wembley – to protect their legacy from their noisy neighbours. And yet when a team is as good as City, nothing can stop them. We will remember the 2023 FA Cup final for the fastest goal in the competition’s history – it took Ilkay Gundogan (left, holding the cup) just 12 seconds to put City ahead.

But what the record books will not show was what City did at the start of the second half. It was exactly the same as what they did in the first 45 minutes against Real Madrid in their Champions

League semi-final second leg at the Etihad.

City showed exactly why they are the best footballing team in the world. They upped their game, turned the screw and just overpowered United.

That first half against Real was one of the best exhibitions of football you will ever see.

The gulf in class between City and United at Wembley between the 45th and 70th minute was vast. Guardiola’s genius is how he has coached this team. He has turned John Stones into a magnificent midfielder, who reads the game brilliantly, knowing when to step forward from defence and when to drop back.

Jack Grealish has been refined to fit into this City winning machine. Bernardo Silva protects and caresses the ball like no other player. Erling Haaland scares the opposing defences witless. Kevin De Bruyne delivers assists even when not at his best. And in Gundogan they have the ultimate big-game player. His mentality is remarkable.

He scored twice when City clinched the Premier League title by beating Aston Villa on the final day of last season. He scored twice at Everton last month in a huge game on the way to winning this season’s title. Now he has scored twice

in the FA Cup final. His calmness and quality resonates throughout the rest of the team. He celebrated lifting the FA Cup as if it was the most important trophy he had ever won.

And in many ways, it is. It keeps City on the path to greatness. As Guardiola (left) said afterwards, they may never have this opportunity again and that is why they must grasp it.

United are defined by the Treble of ’99. And that is why City must seize this chance against Inter Milan in Istanbul on Saturday.

United was billed as being the harder of their two remaining games. But City made it look easy. Gundogan’s sweet volley after just 12 seconds put them in command. United were not remotely in the game when VAR gifted them a penalty for Grealish’s handball from Aaron Wan-bissaka’s header.

Don’t blame the VAR. Blame the laws of the game. The decision was right. The laws are wrong. They should allow for some common sense.

And Bruno Fernandes’ 33rdminute penalty might have been the cue for United to come back.

But they had no answer to City’s superiority.

Gundogan’s shot from De Bruyne’s free-kick beat a hapless David De Gea six minutes after the break and was enough to win it.

City are setting a new benchmark. They are rewriting the record books, tearing up the coaching manuals and making everyone else look second best.