Manchester City have taken a scenic and often desperately painful route to winning the Champions League but the journey reached its destination at last as they were finally able to get their hands on the giant trophy with victory over Inter Milan.
BBC report that the win also completed the Treble of Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup for Pep Guardiola and his side, joining arch-rivals Manchester United as the only English club to achieve the feat.
For Guardiola, who paced and pawed at the giant technical areas of Ataturk Stadium in agitation throughout an attritional encounter, this was his legacy sealed, his place among the game’s greats secured by Rodri’s 68th-minute winner.
He knew there would always be an unspoken question mark about his time as Manchester City manager until the Champions League was won.
The judgement on his work would always be framed, unfairly or otherwise, around whether he could add to his two victories with Barcelona in this competition – the last in 2011.
The judgement can now be made. No further doubt can be cast on Guardiola’s greatness.
They were certainly deafening as they poured out of Ataturk Stadium into the choking traffic and vast sprawl of Istanbul to celebrate City’s greatest night at the end of their greatest season.
They have won seven Premier League titles, three FA Cups and six League Cups since they came under Abu Dhabi control.
But the Champions League was the one they always wanted, the one they had eyes on since the day in September 2008 that changed the face of English football.
It has taken time but Manchester City have now finally changed the face of European football and this could be the start of an era of Champions League domination. BBC.
