2021 was the year Manchester City were supposed to end their wait for that maiden Champions League title and deliver Sheik Mansour his dream since the Abu Dhabi ruler bought the club from Thaksin Shinawatra in 2008 and completely changed their fortunes.
Premier League rivals Chelsea awaited them in Porto, but Man City were the heavy favourites to come out on top at the Estadio do Dragao and were expected to return to the northwest of England with the big-eared trophy and add it to the cabinet alongside the Carabao Cup and Premier League they had already won that season.
Thomas Tuchel and his tricky Blues had other ideas though. Chelsea had already beaten Man City in the FA Cup semi-final and league building up to the European Cup final and they set up defensively in Porto, managing to keep City’s dangerous attack at bay while Kai Havertz’s first-half goal proved the difference in a rather tame affair.
Pep Guardiola was criticised for overthinking his pre-game tactics, most notably not playing either Fernandinho or Rodri in defensive midfield for just the second time that season while Raheem Sterling’s surprise inclusion in attack also raised eyebrows as the English winger hadn’t featured since the first leg of the last 16 against Borussia Monchengladbach.
Fast forward two years and Manchester City are back in the Champions League and in a position where they are once again expected to be crowned champions of Europe. The Sky Blues will take on shock finalists Inter Milan at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Turkey on June 10 and Guardiola’s men are as short as 1/4 to lift the prestigious trophy in the Man City vs Inter betting odds.
Before this season, the Italians hadn’t made it past the quarter-finals of the Champions League since they won the competition under Jose Mourinho in 2010 and while anything can happen over the course of 90 minutes in a cup final, Inter should be no match for Manchester City in this year’s showpiece match.
The core group of players that lost the final to Chelsea in 2021 are still around and will have taken a lot away from that experience, Guardiola included, and the addition of talisman Erling Haaland is a massive boost for the Sky Blues this time around as he has scored 12 goals in 10 games in the competition thus far.
Manchester City are by no means a one-trick pony either. Carlo Ancelotti and his Real Madrid players thought they had cracked the DaVinci Code when they managed to keep Haaland quiet when they nicked a 1-0 at the Santiago Bernabéu. The gameplan of keeping him at bay at the Etihad worked as well, but City still ran out 4-0 winners thanks to a Bernardo Silva double and goals from Manuel Akanji and Julian Alvarez.
That’s a warning sign to Inter boss Simone Inzaghi that finding a formula to stop Haaland scoring is not enough to take down the juggernaut that is Man City. The task at hand for the San Siro outfit is much bigger and tougher than that and it’s one that is very difficult to see them overcome. This is a step too far for Inter and there’s little chance that Manchester City are going to let that title slip from their grasp again.
