Izuchukwu OkosiManchester City manager Pep Guardiola acknowledges the history of Inter Milan in European football but believes that his City side can enter the pantheon of the biggest clubs on the European continent.
Inter Milan will face City who are arguably the most in-form football club in the world at the Artatuk stadium with Guardiola and his team desperate to win a treble after claiming the Premier League and FA Cup.
Sir Alex Ferguson remains the only iconic manager in the English game to have led his team, Manchester United, to the feat in 1999.
Guardiola in his press conference on Friday evening insists he has a plan to combat the threats posed by the Nerazzurri on Saturday evening.
Guardiola has won the competition on two previous occasions, in the years either side of Inter’s last Champions League triumph in 2010, but has not lifted the trophy with another side since his departure from Barcelona.
Asked whether it was a dream or an obsession to go all the way with City, who have already lifted the Premier League and FA Cup trophies this season, Guardiola replied: “It’s absolutely a dream. Absolutely.
“To achieve things you always have to have the correct portion of obsession, desire. Obsession is a positive word but it’s a dream for all of us.”
City head into the final as the bookmakers’ clear favourites, but Guardiola remains adamant that anything can happen in a one-off game and that history has favoured Inter in terms of European success.
“We know how important the competition is. I don’t control what the people have an opinion about, just focus on what we have to do,” Guardiola said. “I saw as many Inter games to see what we have to do.
“In the end, it’s a football game. The team who perform better over 95 minutes will win. Over history, Inter are bigger than us. It’s not important. (What’s) Important is tomorrow at 22.00 Istanbul time we do the best performance possible.”
On the subject of Erling Haaland’s recent dip in terms of goals, Guardiola insisted that he has no worries at all about the towering Norwegian.
“I’m not here to discuss the average for Haaland scoring goals. If you have doubts about that you are the only person. I don’t have doubts, tomorrow he will be ready to help us win the Champions League.”
The last time Guardiola featured in the final of the Champions League was in 2021, which he ultimately lost to Thomas Tuchel and Chelsea. Saturday’s game against Inter, however, is a different occasion altogether according to the Spaniard.
“I would like to tell you the lessons but I don’t know,” he said. “It’s a different game, two years, different players. Two seasons ago, what we planned was to try to do a good game vs Chelsea. It didn’t work, people say the decision was wrong.
“I have a plan tomorrow, communicate the ideas. If we have success, will be good. We are ready, the players will give everything, knowing and respecting the opponents. Go for it.”
The UEFA Champions League final will kick off at 8pm Nigerian time on Saturday evening.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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