Man City vs Inter Milan LIVE: Champions League final result and reaction after City seal historic treble

From goalkeeper of the year to out for a year. From elite to club exile, from No.1 to drugs ban, from sought-after to released on a free.

And all the way back again.

Andre Onana is bidding to hit the pinnacle of the sport and become a European champion, 855 days on from first being handed a ban for a doping violation. It’s a journey which would make some shrink from the challenge or play havoc with their mindset, yet setbacks - which feels too understated of a word - seem part and parcel of the Cameroonian’s career.

Indeed, it’s less that Onana’s story is one of a rise-fall-rise, and more of a non-stop, chaotic rollercoaster which travels an upward trajectory even as the stomach still feels like it’s heading the opposite direction.

And all of this is even before he gets to attempt stopping Erling Haaland and co.

Read more about the rollercoaster career of Inter’s No 1, courtesy of Karl Matchett:

Long before the Barnsley Beckenbauer was reinvented as the Barnsley Busquets, he was the Barnsley benchwarmer. John Stones enters the Champions League final as a revelation, the man whose career has progressed in an unexpected way by moving forward: literally, given that the centre-back doubles up as a midfielder now.

Rewind three years, however, and the most stylish English central defender of his generation had adopted a different, unwanted status: of the substitute, and not even the resident super-sub. When Manchester City exited the Champions League in 2020, he had a watching brief, unused as they were beaten by Lyon. Even that was perhaps not the worst element. Even as Pep Guardiola picked an unusually defensive team against the side who finished seventh in Ligue 1, Stones was not one of his three centre-backs.

Eric Garcia was, though he was a teenage rookie. Fernandinho was, though he was a 35-year-old midfielder. Aymeric Laporte was, though he had spent much of the season injured. The backdrop may have been still more damning for Stones: Vincent Kompany had left the previous summer and, after City failed to buy Harry Maguire, the captain had not been replaced. Stones should have been the main man; instead he was the spare man, starting just 12 league games, only featuring for 16 minutes of City’s final five matches in all competitions, fifth in line, with Nicolas Otamendi probably ahead of him too.

Istanbul has been abuzz with colour and excitement today as fans of both teams get ready for the Champions League final. It has been a cracking atmosphere.

Pep Guardiola was back in an old haunt and he wanted a picture to mark the occasion, writes Richard Jolly. He roped in an old friend. It was in the Allianz Arena in Munich and he had Manchester City’s CEO Ferran Soriano alongside him. City’s run of nine consecutive victories had actually ended but a 1-1 draw against Bayern Munich had clinched a 4-1 aggregate triumph. Even for a man who has achieved as much as Guardiola, it was worth getting a memento.

Guardiola had three seasons with Bayern, reaching the Champions League semi-finals in each. He has spent much of his seven years at City arguing that the aristocracy of European football have an inherent advantage in the Champions League, some kind of institutional memory that clicks in. City’s possible route to glory now is paved with the past: Bayern in the last eight, the 14-time winners Real Madrid in the last four, Inter Milan in the final. Whether Helenio Herrera, Sandro Mazzola and Giacinto Facchetti will prove much of an advantage in Istanbul remains to be seen. Study the last 12 years, after all, and Inter, with a solitary previous quarter-final appearance, are the rank outsiders on Saturday.

But perhaps City have always seen themselves as the outsiders who are desperate to be part of the club: the club of European Cup winners. When Guardiola has said he would rather win the Premier League than the Champions League, or that it is harder to – and he has made both claims over the years – it has scarcely rung true. There are many City supporters who would rather get the better of Manchester United than clubs from Milan, Munich or Madrid, but for manager and hierarchy alike, it has felt like the holy grail.

Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour will attend the Champions League final on Saturday evening.

Club sources have confirmed to the PA news agency that the sheikh will be present in Istanbul as City face Inter Milan bidding to win Europe’s top club prize for the first time.

It will only be the second game he has attended since his investment vehicle, the Abu Dhabi United Group, purchased City in 2008.

Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak was also due to be at the showpiece match at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium.

City have risen to become the dominant force in the English game under Mansour’s stewardship with the club having won seven Premier League titles in the past 12 years and five of the last six.

Reporting by PA

Pep Guardiola and Kevin De Bruyne have admitted that it is Manchester City‘s “dream and obsession” to win the Champions League.

Guardiola’s side are favourites for the game against Inter that could see them crowned European champions for the first time and complete the treble.

“It’s absolutely a dream, yes. To achieve things you always have to have the correct proportion of obsession and desire,” Guardiola told reporters ahead of the final.

In Manchester City training sessions, the staff can already sense the same mood that was so striking before the games against Arsenal and Real Madrid, writes Miguel Delaney. There is that “right kind of conviction”, that is so specific to the circumstances of the fixture. For the 4-1 over Arsenal, it was the aim of reclaiming the title they felt was theirs. For the 4-0 over Madrid, it was revenge for what happened at the Bernabeu last season.

Now, it is the memory of 2021, and finally putting right what has always gone so wrong in the Champions League. That focused intensity can be seen in the players, above all Kevin De Bruyne. The feeling is that City will come out at thFce Ataturk Stadium with full fury, and not give Internazionale even a chance to settle, let alone get on the ball.

If that is the case, it could well be worse than either Arsenal or Madrid. The 68th Champions League final could even be one that surpasses the four-goal victories of 1960, 1989, 1994 and the 1974 replay. It’s hard not to think City could render it a procession by the first half-hour, just as they have done so often in the last three months.

What Simone Inzaghi is banking on, though, is if that doesn’t happen. If it gets to even 25 minutes and Inter have dug deep to not let City in, there is the chance that doubt could creep back in; that it could feel like it’s going to be another of those nights; that there is something about this competition that is now fated for Pep Guardiola.

Read Miguel’s full preview here:

Milan Skriniar is back in training for Inter Milan after an injury, though it’s doubtful he’ll earn a place in the starting back three, with Simone Inzaghi’s plans already set.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Joaquin Correa are both hoping to be passed fit for the final too, with the latter probably having the least chance after an injury in the Coppa Italia final.

Predicted line-up

Inter Milan XI: Onana, Darmian, Acerbi, Bastoni, Dumfries, Calhanoglu, Brozovic, Barella, Dimarco, Martinez, Dzeko

Kyle Walker has been hampered in preparations for the final by a muscle injury, but he has vowed to be back fit and pending any late setbacks, he should be included in the squad. There are no other injury issues for Pep Guardiola to worry about.

Predicted line-up

Manchester City XI: Ederson, Akanji, Dias, Ake, Stones, Rodri, Silva, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Grealish, Haaland

The biggest club title in European football is on the line and either Manchester City or Inter Milan will be celebrating the greatest night in their recent history come tonight.

Pep Guardiola and Simone Inzaghi go head-to-head in the dugout, with key battles across the pitch seeing Nicolo Barella and Kevin de Bruyne vying for midfield supremacy and goalkeeper Andre Onana attempting to keep out free-scoring Erling Haaland.

Inter’s last Champions League triumph came in 2010 under the management of Jose Mourinho; City have never won the competition but came runners-up two years ago.

Both teams won their respective domestic cup competitions this term, the FA Cup and Coppa Italia, but while City also won the Premier League, Inter were only third in Serie A.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the match including how to watch for free.