A historic treble was completed on Saturday night as Manchester City defeated Inter to win the UEFA Champions League for the first time in the club’s history.
At the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Rodri’s second-half thunderbolt gave Pep Guardiola’s team a 1-0 victory.
They managed to win their first-ever European Cup despite the game’s very tense final third, which included more than five agonizing minutes of stoppage time.
They are the first team in Europe to complete a league, cup and Champions League treble since Bayern Munich in 2019/20 and becoming the second English team after Manchester United to achieve the feat.
The Citizens hauled in Arsenal in the Premier League title race. Eventually, they finished five points clear of the Gunners before beating Man Utd in the FA Cup final thanks to two goals from Ilkay Gundogan.
It is City’s first success in Europe’s top competition ever. Their only previous success in continental football came in the 1969/70 European Cup Winners’ Cup. They were beaten by Chelsea in their only previous Champions League final.
The treble winners won four of their six group stages games alongside goalless draws with Copenhagen and Borussia Dortmund. In all three knockout ties against RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, City secured 1-1 draws away from home and thumping wins at the Etihad.
City were guided by Erling Haaland’s 12 goals in the competition with no other squad member scoring more than three goals. Kevin De Bruyne supplied six assists.
No City player in the matchday squad had previously won the Champions League and this is manager Pep Guardiola’s first success in the competition since 2011, being his first UCL crown away from Barcelona.
The win also completes a historic quadruple for Julian Alvarez, who was also part of Argentina’s 2022 World Cup success. No other player has previously won the World Cup, Champions League, domestic league, and cup competitions in the same season.
We're celebrating our Treble with an open-top bus parade through Manchester city centre tomorrow! ๐
— Manchester City (@ManCity) June 11, 2023
See you all there ๐คฉ