Manchester City is on top of Europe. “Makers of history” for the Daily Express Sport, “Champions City” for Mundo Deportivo, “City wins the hat-trick with Rodri and Ederson as heroes” for the Telegraph, the European press hails the victory of the Citizens and praises its strong men . Rodri, the only scorer of the match, made headlines in Spain: “Rodrigo’s C1” AS title, “Don Rodri” dares Marca. Pep Guardiola is also honored after his second hat-trick (after 2009): “Historique Pep” writes Sport, L’Equipe goes there with his pun “Manchester City at the “pep”fection”.
More in depth, the machine manufactured by the Catalan technician arouses admiration. In England especially. “Guardiola has won everything for his bosses in the Gulf. Twenty-four years have passed since Ferguson’s thrilling Camp Nou victory (the treble in 1999), the same year City emerged from the English Third Division. The 21st century has been much kinder to City. The club have found themselves at the perfect confluence of money, politics, power and the talent they can contribute, and they now have their own hat-trick. With this team, triumph seemed inevitable – if it wasn’t now, it would have been soon,” wrote Sam Wallace for the Telegraph.
“Carlo Ancelotti, Jupp Heynckes, Ottmar Hitzfeld, José Mourinho and now Pep Guardiola. The Catalan coach entered a particularly elite coaching circle on Saturday evening by winning the Champions League with Manchester City. Only these five coaches have so far managed to win the Champions League with two clubs” recalled the German bi-weekly Kicker. Outstanding performance.
On the transalpine side, the disappointment is great as the three clubs involved in the European Cup final lost (Inter Milan in C1, AS Roma in C3 and Fiorentina in C4). The performance of the Interists is still welcomed.
“Manchester City are the strongest team in the world. Inter Milan’s game plan was perfect and they kept their opponent in check for a long time, until the Spanish midfielder (Rodri) struck. The formidable Haaland, well controlled by Acerbi, did not score, but it was Guardiola who smiled as he completed the hat-trick he had already achieved with Barcelona. Now Manchester United are no longer the only Manchester team to have done so. For Inter, on the other hand, this season remains memorable, with two trophies won, but comes the second lost European final of the Zhang era (the owner of the club) after the Europa League 2019-20. And at the Atatürk in Istanbul, the disappointment of the nerazzurri public is great, but while the players cry, Lautaro (Martinez) the most distraught, the Curva Nord applauds them and sings for them” details the Gazzetta dello Sport.
