THANK ROD FOR THAT Spaniard sidefoots his way into football history
MANCHESTER CITY seized immortality in Istanbul.
Rodri’s second-half strike ensured Pep Guardiola’s men became European champions for the first time – and emulated rivals Manchester United – with a Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup treble.
It wasn’t pretty. In fact, Inter made sure that it was downright ugly.
But this was a night when City showed that their beautiful football comes with an edge.
Rodri was the match-winner but it needed a stunning 89th-minute save by Ederson and a goal-line clearance by Ruben Dias to claim a place in history. You can be sure that the 30,000 blues celebrating on the banks of the Bosphorus won’t give a **** about all the talk of this magnificent achievement being accompanied by an asterisk.
They even got over the line without playmaker Kevin De Bruyne.
The Belgian, poleaxed out of the Champions League final two years ago by Antonio Rudiger, had his night cut short by a first-half hamstring injury.
It was Guardiola’s first Champions League triumph since he led Barcelona to their second title in three seasons in 2011 and owner Sheikh Mansour had flown in from Abu Dhabi to see if his dream could come true.
He had only ever watched his team in the flesh once before — visiting the Etihad for a 3-0 victory over Liverpool in 2010.
City fans of a more mature vintage would have remembered the Blues had previous with Istanbul.
Their first foray into the European Cup 55 years ago came to an abrupt end in the preliminary round when they suffered a shock defeat to Fenerbahce. Coach Malcolm Allison had famously warned that they would “terrify Europe”.
Mike Summerbee played that
night – and the 80-year-old was in the Ataturk Stadium in his role as club ambassador.
Inter are European football royalty.
The Nerazzurri were looking for their fourth success in this competition, the last coming in 2010 when Jose Mourinho bested Guardiola’s Barcelona in the semi-finals.
But City had obliterated Bayern Munich and Real Madrid on their way to the final.
The question now was could they handle the pressure of being overwhelming favourites?
Two years ago in Porto, they froze and were beaten by Chelsea. This battle was so cagey it could have been played behind bars, with City looking strangely nervous for the first 25 minutes.
When they quickened the pace, De Bruyne carved out a chance for Erling Haaland but the Norwegian shot too close to Inter keeper Andre Onana.
De Bruyne forced Onana into another save but moments later went down clutching his hamstring and was eventually forced off to be replaced by Phil Foden.
It was a huge blow for the Blues. The battle of attrition continued after the break, with City probing and Inter refusing to play ball.
Guardiola was pleading with his players for more care after a wasteful Haaland pass let Inter off the hook.
He got his wish in the 69th minute when Rodri put them ahead.
Manuel Akanji and Bernardo Silva opened Inter up down the right and when his cross was deflected into the path of the Spaniard, he found the corner with a fierce finish.
Inter were almost level with City’s fans still over the Blue Moon.
Wing-back Federico Dimarco smuggled himself forward and sent a looping header off the crossbar before seeing his goal-bound follow-up blocked by Romelu Lukaku.
Lukaku then fired at Ederson before Guardiola sent on Kyle Walker.