Manchester City won the Champions League for the first time in their history by beating Inter.

MOSCOW, June 11 – RIA Novosti. Manchester City beat Inter Milan to win the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history.

The final match of the Main European Cup was held at Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul on Saturday and ended with the English team’s 1-0 score. Spanish midfielder Rodri scored the only goal in the 68th minute.

City won their second European Cup in its history. In 1970 Manchester United won the Cup Winners’ Cup.

Manchester City and Inter have never met before, their first meeting took place in the main European Cup final. The last time this happened was in 2005 in Istanbul. Then Inter’s neighbor Milan and another club from England, Liverpool, competed for the Champions League trophy. The Reds then had a football success coming back from 0-3 and subsequently won the championship on penalty shootouts.

In this match, experts named Milan as the favourite. Now the undisputed favorite of the match was England’s champion. On the eve of the match, bettors predicted Manchester City’s chances of winning with a coefficient of 1.4, while Inter bets were accepted with a coefficient of 7.1. Josep Guardiola’s team came to Istanbul to add the Champions League to the league and has already won the FA Cup. However, Inter, the winner of the Italian Cup and Super Cup, took the same trio.

The grand opening ceremony of the final match included a performance by Nigerian hip-hop artist Burna Boy. Former Turkish national team player Hamit Altıntop, who won the Champions League trophy when he was a football player in Bayern Munich, brought it to the arena. Among the VIP guests of the final, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russian Football Union (RFU) President Alexander Dyukov and Manchester City owner Arab Sheikh Mansur stood out.

Owner of City since 2008, Mansour is not a frequent guest at his team’s games. After buying the club, the sheikh participated in only one match before the final in Istanbul – against Liverpool in the Premier League in 2010. Mansour’s presence once again highlighted how important this win is for the English club. However, in the first half, he couldn’t see the goals scored like the other spectators in the stands, plus City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne must have been injured, who was replaced by Phil Foden in the 35th minute. demoralized him. The Belgian once again failed to reach the end of the Champions League final – in his match with Chelsea in 2021, he was also replaced by injury, losing his team – 0: 1.

In the second half, Manchester City continued to take the initiative, but the Nerazzurri did not give up the struggle and sacrifice and did not forget the dangerous counter attacks. This continued until the 68th minute, when City took the lead with Rodri. The Champions League final was the Spanish player’s 52nd start this season. During Guardiola’s entire coaching career, there was only one player on his team who initially played more games per season – Lionel Messi (57) at Barcelona in the 2011/12 season. It is not surprising that he is such an important player for the coach who scored such an important goal.

“Inter” nearly leveled the score in the first comeback – Federico Dimarco hit the crossbar with his head and Romelu’s replacement Romelu Lukaku prevented the ball from entering the goal while finishing the same Dimarco. Thereupon, Inter goalkeeper Andre Onana saved Foden one-on-one, leaving his team in the game. And at the end of regular time, Lukaku became the main anti-hero of the match – the Belgian striker hit the goal at close range from the goalkeeper’s line, but hit the knee of the City goalkeeper Ederson.

Guardiola reached the Champions League final for the fourth time and won his third. Previously, he won the main European Cup twice with Barcelona (2009, 2011), and now he finally managed to win outside his homeland, Catalonia. Under his direction, Manchester City finally earned the right to call itself the best club in Europe.

This European season has been very successful for Italy, with its teams reaching the finals in all three UEFA competitions. However, they all failed. Simone Inzaghi’s club has joined the squad of Roma, which lost to Spain’s Sevilla in the Europa League final, and Fiorentina, who lost to England’s West Ham in the Conference League’s decisive match.