City ready to banish memory of 2021 final, says Guardiola

Pep Guardiola insisted on Friday his Manchester City side are primed to put their defeat in the 2021 Champions League final behind them for good as they seek to win the trophy when they take on Inter Milan in Istanbul today. City were beaten 1-0 by Chelsea in Porto in the club’s only previous appearance to date in the final of Europe’s elite club competition.
Guardiola came in for criticism then for tinkering with what had been a winning team, as he surprisingly omitted captain Fernandinho and Rodrigo from the base of his midfield.
“I am pretty sure that two years ago what we planned, what we had in mind, was to have success against Chelsea. It didn’t work and that is why all the people said the decision was wrong,” Guardiola said yesterday just before his team trained on the pitch at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium. “Tomorrow will be the same, have a plan, have an idea and communicate to the players. We are ready.”
That match also ended bitterly for Kevin De Bruyne, as City’s Belgian playmaker came off in tears after being taken out in a collision with Chelsea defender Antonio Ruediger. “We were not good enough on the day and you have to accept it,” De Bruyne said yesterday. “Luckily we have another chance, another opportunity to prove we can win this competition.”
City are looking to complete a remarkable treble by winning the Champions League for the first time in their history, after retaining the Premier League title and then beating Manchester United 2-1 in last weekend’s FA Cup final thanks to two Ilkay Gundogan goals. They are the overwhelming favourites to complete the job against Inter, having seen off RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, all in comprehensive fashion, in this season’s knockout rounds.
The goals of Erling Haaland, who has scored 52 in all competitions since joining City from Borussia Dortmund, have helped elevate Guardiola’s side to new heights this season.
The Norwegian did not score in either leg of the semi-final against Madrid and has not found the net in his last four appearances, which constitutes a veritable goal drought for such a prolific player.
De Bruyne, who has enjoyed providing goals for Haaland this season, jokingly denied that it was a case of love at first sight between the two, as he expressed hope the striker will be back on form against Inter. “I am happy with my wife,” he replied when asked about the chemistry between them. “Sometimes you have a feeling with a player, you understand what he wants and he understands what I want or what I can do. It just clicked really well and he started scoring at an incredible rate. That helps and it settled him really easily in the team. Hopefully he can do what he needs to do tomorrow.”
De Bruyne is nevertheless aware that City may need to be patient against an obstinate Inter side who have exceeded all expectations in reaching a first Champions League final in 13 years. “We understand what Inter is,” he said. “They defend incredibly well. We don’t expect it to be an open game. That doesn’t happen a lot in a final anyway.”
Meanwhile, Inter are ready to shock the footballing world by beating City, manager Simone Inzaghi said. City are the favourites for the clash, however, Inzaghi’s side are in good form themselves, having won 11 of their last 12 matches in all competitions. The Italian labelled City the strongest team in the world but said that his players were ready to cause an upset.
“We know we have a huge opportunity to write a page in football history,” Inzaghi said. “We know it will be very difficult but we will try. Together is the word that brought us here and together we will try to win on Saturday. We know the type of match we’ll have to play tomorrow. City are the strongest team in the world, they proved it in the matches they’ve played. We’re proud to have come this far, we’ll do everything to play a game of incredible concentration. We’ll have to limit our mistakes and seize the opportunities we have.”
Inter, who have won the European Cup three times before, have already secured the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana this season and will use their experience of winning tough against City. “Tomorrow we will play our 57th game this season, it was a very long journey with some difficult moments. It’s in those that we’ve grown the most,” Inzaghi said.
“We’ve learned from deserved and undeserved defeats and put in a crazy effort to arrived in Istanbul. The last few weeks we have had little time to think about the Champions League final, we had the Italian Cup final that we cared about very much. Only now are we understanding what we have achieved so tomorrow we will fight inch by inch on the pitch to come out with the win.”