ISTANBUL: Manchester City are huge favourites heading into Saturday’s Champions League final against Inter Milan in Istanbul as Pep Guardiola’s side aim to finally get their hands on the greatest prize in European club football, and complete a historic treble.

City have been building towards this moment ever since the transformative 2008 takeover of the club by the Abu Dhabi United Group.

They have become England’s dominant force, winning seven Premier League titles in the last 12 seasons and following their latest triumph by claiming the FA Cup last weekend.

It has happened just as they have become the club with the greatest revenues in world football according to analysts Deloitte, with income of 731 million euros ($788m) last season.

Question marks surround their success, given that City were charged in February by the Premier League with 115 alleged breaches of its financial rules between 2009 and 2018.

In Europe, meanwhile, City were banned for two years from UEFA competitions in February 2020 for “serious financial fair-play breaches”, but that sanction was overturned later by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Now they can match the achie­vement of Alex Ferguson’s Manch­ester United in 1999 by beating Inter at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium and securing a treble.

Emulating that would go a long way to banishing any lingering sense of inferiority that became part of City’s DNA when they were stumbling out of the top-flight and their illustrious neighbours were all-conquering.

More pertinently, City’s Abu Dhabi owners would finally get their hands on the European trophy that their massive financial investment in the club was designed to achieve.

City came close in 2021 when they misfired in the final against Chelsea in Porto — a defeat that still haunts Guardiola who is looking to win the trophy for a third time having taken Barcelona all the way in 2009 and 2011.

City lost in last year’s semi-finals to Real Madrid, but the addition of Erling Haaland appears to have taken Guardiola’s team to a new level.

The Norwegian has scored 52 goals since arriving from Borussia Dortmund, and City land in Turkey having been beaten just once in their last 27 games.

That 1-0 defeat at Brentford came on the last day of the Premier League season, after the title had been secured.

City have not lost in Europe this season. They outplayed European aristocracy Bayern Munich and Real en route to the final and have players who will warm the bench in Istanbul’s Ataturk Olympic Stadium on Saturday who would waltz into Inter’s first team, and indeed most teams in Europe.

So there is surely nothing to fear in the final against the third-best team in Italy, except perhaps their own past demons in crucial Champions League games.

“It is a dream to be here, two years ago we were there but in a different situation,” Guardiola told reporters ahead of the final. “We’re going to try to do our best and we know the final is how you behave in that specific 95 minutes. It is not about history — if they are better than us.

“It is about what you have to do in 90 minutes to be better than the opponent. It doesn’t count what you have done in the group stage, quarter-finals, last season, Premier League or FA Cup. It is one single game.”

Yet, City cannot overlook the threat of an Inter team who qualified from their group ahead of Barcelona before seeing off Porto, Benfica and city rivals AC Milan.

They have maybe not faced a team of City’s calibre, but they have a clear Cup pedigree, having recently retained the Coppa Italia.

“Of course we are confident, so optimistic, but at the same time I cannot deny the difficulties and qualities of the opponents,” said Guardiola. “I have never done it and especially in the final of the Champions League.”

Inter know what they are up against too, not least veteran 37-year-old forward Edin Dzeko. The Bosnian played for City between 2011 and 2016.

He has scored 14 goals this season and has been an excellent foil for Inter’s star forward, Lautaro Martinez.

Simone Inzaghi’s side may not have as many superstars as City, but they have a grizzled back line, dangerous wing-backs and a hard-working midfield in which Nicolo Barella excels.

“I know we’ll meet the strongest team in the world at the moment. We face the best,” said Inzaghi, who was appointed in 2021 after the Nerazzurri had won Serie A under Antonio Conte. “We’re talking about a football match and with all due respect, I’m not afraid of anything.

“In modern football, there is before and after Guardiola, it will be very important for us. We will have to be careful to play a team game, we know we will be facing the best, with a fantastic squad and a coach who has marked an era.”

Much of the focus has centred on the threat posed to Inter’s hopes by Haaland, even though the Norway international has scored only once in his last seven appearances.

“Haaland said City bought him to win the Champions League, but City isn’t just Haaland; they have numerous players who can put us in trouble,” Inzaghi said. “[Real Madrid’s Antonio] Rudiger managed to stop him very well in the semi-final and we’ll try to take our cue from that.”

Inter are in their first final since winning the trophy under Jose Mourinho in 2010, the last victory in the competition for an Italian side.

They have lifted the trophy three times before, while City’s only European silverware to date remains the Cup Winners’ Cup, which they won in 1970.

Inzaghi says Inter’s run has been “a dream” but they have not arrived in Turkey’s gateway city to make up the numbers and if City’s players are to achieve sporting immortality they are going to have to earn it.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2023