The pressure was on Manchester City. Many sides would be happy with just winning the Premier League, but the side led by Pep Guardiola were deeply hurt after their crushing loss against Real Madrid in the Champions League the previous season where Guardiola’s side crumbled in the final seven minutes to let in three goals and give away the ticket to the final to Carlo Ancelotti.
All eyes were on the Spaniard as many questioned whether he could win the Champions League title, something that has eluded him since he departed from Barcelona.
But Manchester City dug deep and made their intentions clear of winning it all by signing the striker they desperately needed as Erling Haaland made the move to Manchester following the footsteps of his father. But the side also lost some key players like Raheem Sterling to Chelsea, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus to Arsenal both of which are rival clubs.
City looked to find their groove but were unable to do so as they lost out to Liverpool for the FA Community Shield and debates started to surface on whether Haaland was the real deal. The striker managed to shut down the doubters having scored a brace on his debut against West Ham United and went on to have a consistent patch of scoring goals till October.
Manchester City managed to kick-off their league campaign strong with a nine-game unbeaten streak with two draws after which they lost to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool at Anfield. Up until this loss City were also looking strong having won the three games in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League to start off.
As 2023 rolled by, City managed to book their spot in the Round of 16 in the UCL but things were not as smooth in the league and the cup competitions. City lost against local rivals at Old Trafford and were trailing behind the league leaders Arsenal for the most part of the season. They also crashed out of the Carabao Cup after a shocking defeat to Southampton to mount the pressure on Guardiola.
Manchester City managed to defeat Arsenal, the league leaders both away and at home, and the home leg was where the tides turned for City. Since the game against Mikel Arteta’s side managed to go on a ridiculous unbeaten streak where they managed to go undefeated for 23 games.
During this span they went on to defeat RB Leipzig in the Round of 16, Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals and managed to avenge their failure from the previous season by defeating Madrid 5-1 on aggregate in the semis to book their ticket to Istanbul.
City also managed to cruise into the finals of the FA Cup where they faced United once again, as the treble was a real possibility with Guardiola’s side having secured the Premier League with rivals Arsenal fumbling in the title race with four games to go. Haaland managed to introduce himself to the English Premier League by shattering the record for the most Premier League goals scored in a single season with a tally of 35 goals breaking Andy Cole’s record of 34 when he played for Newcastle back in 1994.
With one title in the bag, all the focus was now on the FA Cup fixture against United. Skipper Ilkay Gundogan managed to set the record for the fastest goal in the finals of the competition’s history with the German putting City ahead just 12 seconds after kick-off thanks to Kevin de Bruyne’s assist.
Bruno equalised with a penalty in the 33rd minute. City however managed to get the lead again with a strike from Gundogan to make it a brace as Kevin de Bruyne assisted the goal once again to secure their second title in the season.
The spotlight was on Pep, from the Champions League finals loss against Chelsea in 2021, the big question was if the Spaniard needed the class of Lionel Messi on his side to get the biggest prize in Europe. He was only able to win the UCL with Barcelona, failed to win the title during his stint at Bayern Munich and never won it during his time at City as well. Now he goes to Istanbul as his side take on Simone Inzaghi’s Inter.
Man City had a big setback as their right-back Kyle Walker was ruled out due to a back injury which he was not able to recover from in time. This meant that Manuel Akanji would start in his place to form a back three with Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake in the back-lines.
Pep who is infamous for making unexpected changes to take the opposition off-guard was once again at it deploying a double pivot in front of the defence with Rodri and John Stones.
Haaland had the chance to open the scoring with de Bruyne slipping in a pass to the striker but the keeper Andre Onana was able to stand guard and keep the score 0-0.
City were on the ball for most of the first half but Inter were looking to be relentless with their pressing. Ederson had a brain-fade moment when he made a loose pass which Barella jumped on and looked to strike from outside the box. But the attempt was wasted as the shot went too wide.
By the 36th minute, Kevin de Bruyne was on the touchlines as he was in discomfort with his hamstring and eventually was subbed out. The midfielder makes it the second time he was subbed out due to injury in the CL finals with the last instance coming during the finals against Chelsea. Phil Foden came in for the Belgian as the play continued on as the referee blew the whistle for the end of the first half.
Akanji got lucky in the second half with a loose pass to the keeper which was intercepted by Lautaro Martinez but made the wrong decision of going for goal himself as Ederson had come out of the box to reduce the angle and eventually made the save.
City eventually got the breakthrough as Bernardo Silva managed to square the pass towards the penalty spot where Rodri charged in and took to shot to give the Cityzens the only goal of the match.
Inter looked to fight back but John Stones was relentless in the midfield area as he remained calm and composed under pressure as City finally managed to get their hands on their maiden UEFA Champions League trophy to complete the treble. This would also mark Pep Guardiola’s second treble in his illustrious career, the only one to ever do so. Manchester City also managed to become the second English club to achieve this feat and the tenth side to win a league, cup and European Cup treble.
However, the dominance did not stop there. City went on to extend their title-winning run by defeating Sevilla on penalties to win the UEFA Super Cup in August 2023 followed by a FIFA Club World Cup win over the Brazillian club Fluminense to make it five trophies for the 2022-2023 season.
It is a similar story in the ongoing season as well, trailing behind Arsenal for the Premier League. Could we see Guardiola’s side repeat the feat? Only time will tell.
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